Assessment of Rydberg atoms for wideband electric field sensing

By David H. Meyer, Zachary A. Castillo, K. Cox, P. Kunz. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 2019

170 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Rydberg atoms have attracted significant interest recently as electric field sensors. In order to assess potential applications, detailed understanding of relevant figures of merit is necessary, particularly in relation to other, more mature, sensor technologies. Here we present a quantitative analysis of the Rydberg sensor’s sensitivity to oscillating electric fields with frequencies between 1 kHz and 1 THz. Sensitivity is calculated using a combination of analytical and semi-classical Floquet models. Using these models, optimal sensitivity at arbitrary field frequency is determined. We validate the numeric Floquet model via experimental Rydberg sensor measurements over a range of 1–20 GHz. Using analytical models, we compare with two prominent electric field sensor technologies: electro-optic crystals and dipole antenna-coupled passive electronics.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/475a2e6745a3deea15933496ff90e19c53b355a0

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. David H. Meyer
2. P. Kunz
3. K. Cox
4. M. Krelina

Citations in the corpus

• Waveguide-Coupled Rydberg Spectrum Analyzer from 0 to 20 GHz (2020, methodology): “But non-cryogenic quantum RF sensors do not currently match the sensitivity of traditional receivers that use standard electronics [1].”