Primary quantum thermometry of mm-wave blackbody radiation via induced state transfer in Rydberg states of cold atoms

Abstract

Rydberg states of alkali atoms are highly sensitive to electromagnetic radiation in the GHz-to-THz regime because their transitions have large electric dipole moments. Consequently, environmental blackbody radiation (BBR) can couple Rydberg states together at $\mu$s timescales. Here, we track the BBR-induced transfer of a prepared Rydberg state to its neighbors and use the evolution of these state populations to characterize the BBR field at the relevant wavelengths, primarily at 130 GHz. We use selective field ionization readout of Rydberg states with principal quantum number $n\sim 30$ in ${}^{85}$Rb and substantiate our ionization signal with a theoretical model. With this detection method, we measure the associated blackbody-radiation-induced time dynamics of these states, reproduce the results with a simple semi-classical population transfer model, and demonstrate that this measurement is temperature sensitive with a statistical sensitivity to the fractional temperature uncertainty of 0.09 Hz${}^{-1/2}$, corresponding to 26 K$\cdot$Hz${}^{-1/2}$ at room temperature. This represents a calibration-free SI-traceable temperature measurement, for which we calculate a systematic fractional temperature uncertainty of 0.006, corresponding to 2 K at room temperature when used as a primary temperature standard.

References in corpus (6)

• Sr lattice clock at 1x10^{-16} fractional uncertainty by remote optical evaluation with a Ca clock
• An atomic clock with $1\times 10^{-18}$ room-temperature blackbody Stark uncertainty
• Ionization of Rydberg atoms by blackbody radiation
• Quantum Blackbody Thermometry
• Long-lived circular Rydberg states of laser-cooled Rubidium atoms in a cryostat
• Measurements of blackbody radiation-induced transition rates between high-lying S, P and D Rydberg levels

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Electric-field metrology of a terahertz frequency comb using Rydberg atoms
• Probing Bandwidth and Sensitivity in Rydberg Atom Sensing via Optical Homodyne and RF Heterodyne Detection
• An Imaging Radar Using a Rydberg Atom Receiver
• Static dc electric field orientation effects on two-photon Rydberg EIT
• Atomic and molecular systems for radiation thermometry
• Population-resolved measurement of an avoided crossing of light-dressed states