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Atomic superheterodyne receiver based on microwave-dressed Rydberg spectroscopy

Nature Physics volume 16, pages 911–915 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Highly sensitive phase- and frequency-resolved detection of microwave electric fields is of central importance in a wide range of fields, including cosmology1,2, meteorology3, communication4 and microwave quantum technology5. Atom-based electrometers6,7 promise traceable standards for microwave electrometry, but their best sensitivity is currently limited to a few μV cm−1 Hz−1/2 (refs. 8,9) and they only yield information about the field amplitude and polarization10. Here, we demonstrate a conceptually new microwave electric field sensor—the Rydberg-atom superheterodyne receiver (superhet). The sensitivity of this technique scales favourably, achieving even 55 nV cm−1 Hz−1/2 with a modest set-up. The minimum detectable field of 780 pV cm−1 is three orders of magnitude smaller than what can be reached by existing atomic electrometers. The Rydberg-atom superhet allows SI-traceable measurements, reaching uncertainty levels of 10−8 V cm−1 when measuring a sub-μV cm−1 field, which has been inaccessible so far with atomic sensors. Our method also enables phase and frequency detection. In sensing Doppler frequencies, sub-μHz precision is reached for fields of a few hundred nV cm−1. This work is a first step towards realizing electromagnetic-wave quantum sensors with quantum projection noise-limited sensitivity. Such a device will impact diverse areas like radio astronomy, radar technology and metrology.

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Fig. 1: Basic principle of the Rydberg-atom superhet.
Fig. 2: Proof-of-principle demonstrations of the optimal point and linear detection.
Fig. 3: Sensitivity and uncertainties of the electric field measurement.
Fig. 4: Frequency and phase detections.

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Data availability

The data represented in Figs. 2, 3 and 4 and Extended Data Figs. 2 and 3 are available as Source Data. All other data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge discussions with X. Liu, H. Pichler, A. Smerzi, H. Sheng, Y. Xiao and B. Vermersch. This research is funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant no. 2017YFA0304203), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 61827824, 61527824, 11874038 and 61722507), 1331 Key Subjects Construction and 111 project (grant no. D18001). L.X. acknowledges support from the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team (grant no. IRT13076). Y.H. and L.Z. also acknowledge support from the 100-Talent Program of Shanxi Province.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Mingyong Jing, Ying Hu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Institute of Laser Spectroscopy, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China

    Mingyong Jing, Ying Hu, Jie Ma, Hao Zhang, Linjie Zhang, Liantuan Xiao & Suotang Jia

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China

    Mingyong Jing, Ying Hu, Jie Ma, Hao Zhang, Linjie Zhang, Liantuan Xiao & Suotang Jia

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  1. Mingyong Jing
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Contributions

L.X., S.J., L.Z. and M.J. proposed the project. M.J. and Y.H. developed the research. M.J. and L.Z. performed the experiments and analysed the experimental data. Y.H. and M.J. developed the theory and carried out theoretical calculations. M.J., L.Z. and H.Z. contributed to the experimental set-up. Y.H., M.J., L.X., J.M. and L.Z. wrote the manuscript and provided revisions. All authors contributed to discussions of the results and the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Linjie Zhang or Liantuan Xiao.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Overview of the experimental setup.

We have used the following notations: (1) DL PRO: external-cavity diode lasers, (2) CR: diode laser current, (3) PZT: piezo ceramic, (4) AOM: The double-pass acousto-optic modulators which shift the frequencies of the probe and coupling lights to atomic resonances, (5) INS: intensity noise server, (6) FNS: frequency noise server, (7) ULE: ultra-low expansion (ULE) glass cavity, (8) TA & SHG: tapered amplifier and second-harmonic generation, (9) HWP: half-wave plate, (10) PBS: polarizing beam splitter, (11) HR: dielectric mirror, (12) GPSDO: GPS disciplined oscillator with Rubidium timebase, (13) RPD: 2-way microwave resistive power divider, (14) FFT: fast Fourier transform, (15) DAO: digital acquisition oscilloscope, (16) SA: spectrum analyzer, (17) Lock-in: lock-in amplifier.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Measurements of the same signal for various laser powers.

In measuring the same signal, seven different choices of (Pp, Pc) for the powers of probe and control lasers are considered, indexed by i = 1, …, 7 in the horizontal axis of a and b. They are respectively (120 μW, 34 mW), (108 μW, 30 mW), (120 μW, 30 mW), (132 μW, 34 mW), (120 μW, 27 mW), (84 μW, 30 mW), (180 μW, 39 mW). Panel a presents measurements of ∣P(δs)∣ and ∣κ0∣ by atomic superhet, and panel b shows \({E}_{s}=[\hslash /(\sqrt{2}\ \mu )]| P({\delta }_{s})| /| {\kappa }_{0}|\). In panel a, the dark blue circle denotes single-shot measurement of ∣P(δs)∣. The light blue square depicts average ∣P(δs)∣ from 10 single-shot measurements with error bar indicating the 1σ standard error. All data of ∣P(δs)∣ has been normalized by the median of ∣P(δs)∣. The gray circle denotes single-shot measurement of ∣κ0∣. Average ∣κ0∣ from 3 measurements is shown (black square) with error bar denoting 1σ standard error. Data of ∣κ0∣ has been normalized by its median. In panel b, the red circle represents single-shot measurement of Es by atomic superhet, and the blue square depicts average Es from 10 measurements with error bar indicating the 1σ standard error. The same signal electric field is also measured using standard antenna method (dashed black line), and the light blue patch denotes measurement uncertainty in this method.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 3 Sensitivity spectrum of the Rydberg-atom superhet.

Measured sensitivity S as a function of relative signal frequency δs is shown for various optical readout noises (red curve), the amplifier noise of photon detector (gray curve) and the spectrum analyzer noise (black curve). These optical readout noises include 1/f noise, transit noise of atoms, and laser frequency noise. The blue line represents the QPNL sensitivity of our setup (Methods). The dashed gray line indicates δs = 150 kHz chosen in experiments in the main text. The sensitivity of our setup is limited by laser frequency noise to 55 nV cm−1 Hz−1/2.

Source data

Source data

Source Data Fig. 2

Numerical data used to generate graphs in Fig. 2.

Source Data Fig. 3

Numerical data used to generate graphs in Fig. 3.

Source Data Fig. 4

Numerical data used to generate graphs in Fig. 4.

Source Data Extended Data Fig. 2

Numerical data used to generate graphs in Extended Data Fig. 2.

Source Data Extended Data Fig. 3

Numerical data used to generate graphs in Extended Data Fig. 3.

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Jing, M., Hu, Y., Ma, J. et al. Atomic superheterodyne receiver based on microwave-dressed Rydberg spectroscopy. Nat. Phys. 16, 911–915 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0918-5

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