Fig. 1: Schematic diagram of the Rydberg atom receiver based on self-dressing of laser-induced DC field.

a Overview of the experimental setup. The following symbols are used: (1) PBS: Polarizing Beam Splitter, (2) HWP: Half-Wave Plate, (3) DM: Dichroic Mirror, (4) PD: Photodetector. b Level scheme. The probe laser excites cesium atoms from the ground state \(|6{{\rm{S}}}_{1/2}\rangle\) to the excited state \(|6{{\rm{P}}}_{3/2}\rangle\); the coupling laser excites atoms from the excited state \(|6{{\rm{P}}}_{3/2}\rangle\) to the Rydberg state \(|{{\rm{52D}}}_{5/2}\rangle\). Δp and Δc are the detunings of the probe laser and coupling laser from the resonant frequencies between energy levels, respectively. Under the self-dressing effect of the laser-induced DC field, the magnetic sublevels of the Rydberg state \(|{{\rm{52D}}}_{5/2}\rangle\) undergo degeneracy lifting, and the energy levels exhibit a time-dependent position \(\tilde{\Omega }\) under the action of the signal field. c Schematic of the laser-induced DC field inside the vapor cell. When the coupling laser is incident near the cell wall, the DC field generated by positive charge clusters excited on the cell wall via the photoelectric effect acts on Rydberg atoms. The yellow arrows in the figure indicate the vector direction of the DC field. d Spectral diagram of the degeneracy lifting of the Rydberg state \(|{{\rm{52D}}}_{5/2}\rangle\) under the self-dressing effect, by monitoring the probe laser transmitted through the vapor cell while scanning the coupling laser frequency (Methods).