Speaker
Description
We present the development of a compact and space compatible quantum wideband sensor for radio-frequency (RF) electric fields based on Rydberg atoms in thermal alkali vapor cells.
Rydberg-atom based sensors provide sensitivity to the electric component of RF fields thanks to the high polarizability of excited states.
Unlike traditional RF antennas, these sensors are self-calibrated via atomic constants, miniaturizable below the operating wavelength, and tunable over a wide frequency range (~100 MHz to ~1 THz). These features make them ideal for applications in space situational awareness (SSA), RF imaging, passive radar, communication systems, and quantum metrology.
A Rydberg-based RF sensor operates via a four-level atomic scheme, where a probe laser excites the first transition. RF field detection is based on changes in the probe's optical transmission, resulting from the formation of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) via a coupling laser, and Autler–Townes (AT) splitting of the EIT peak, proportional to the target RF field
