Complete three-dimensional vector polarimetry with a Rydberg atom rf electrometer

Abstract

Radio frequency (rf) receivers using Rydberg atoms offer appealing features over classical sensors, such as their size, frequency tuning range, and lack of field absorption. In this work, we extend the application space by demonstrating a Rydberg atom rf polarimeter. Using rf heterodyne with three independent and orthogonal local oscillators, we are able to extract the polarization ellipse of the field in three dimensions, in addition to the total amplitude of the field. We use the relative phases and amplitudes of the three generated heterodyne signals to measure the field amplitudes and phases along three cardinal axes giving the full three-dimensional polarization. We demonstrate this polarization measurement for incoming fields at different angles around the sensor. Lastly, we investigate the reception of data symbols encoded in the horizontal and vertical signal field polarizations and the phase between them. Our measurements yield an amplitude noise of 57 $\mu$V/m/$\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ for horizontal polarization, 66 $\mu$V/m/$\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ for vertical polarization, and a standard deviation of 0.094 rad in the phase between the field components.

10 pages, 6 figures

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Rydberg Atomic Quantum Receivers for Classical Wireless Communication and Sensing
• Thermal resonance-enhanced transparency in room temperature Rydberg gases
• Electrically-Small Rydberg Sensor for Three-Dimensional Determination of rf k-Vectors
• Probing Bandwidth and Sensitivity in Rydberg Atom Sensing via Optical Homodyne and RF Heterodyne Detection
• Doppler-free Rydberg Spectroscopy in Warm Vapor
• Static dc electric field orientation effects on two-photon Rydberg EIT
• EIT Spectroscopy of Rydberg Levels Dressed by Linearly Polarized RF fields: Complementary Angular Response for Two Types of Transition Ladders