Extended Data Fig. 5: Characterizing microwave-enhanced Rydberg detection fidelity.

The effect of strong microwave (MW) pulses on Rydberg atoms is measured by preparing atoms in \(|g\rangle \), exciting to \(|r\rangle \) with a Rydberg π-pulse, and then applying the microwave pulse before de-exciting residual Rydberg atoms with a final Rydberg π-pulse. (The entire sequence occurs while tweezers are briefly turned off.) a, Broad resonances are observed with varying microwave frequency, corresponding to transitions from \(|r\rangle \) = \(|70S\rangle \) to other Rydberg states. Note that the transitions to \(|69P\rangle \) and \(|70P\rangle \) are in the range of 10–12 GHz, and over this entire range there is strong transfer out of  \(|r\rangle \). Other resonances might be due to multiphoton effects. b, With fixed 6.9-GHz microwave frequency and varying pulse time, there is a rapid transfer out of the Rydberg state on the timescale of several nanoseconds. Over short timescales, there may be coherent oscillations that return population back to \(|r\rangle \), so a 100-ns pulse is used for enhancement of loss signal of \(|r\rangle \) in the experiment.