A Multiple-Band Rydberg Atom-Based Receiver: AM/FM Stereo Reception

Abstract

With the re-definition of the International System of Units (SI) that occurred in October of 2018, there has recently been a great deal of attention on the development of atom-based sensors for metrology applications. In particular, great progress has been made in using Rydberg-atom based techniques for electric (E) field metrology. These Rydberg-atom based E-field sensors have made it possible to develop atom-based receivers and antennas, which potentially have many benefits over conventional technologies in detecting and receiving modulated signals. In this paper, we demonstrate the "first" multi-channel atom-based reception of both amplitude (AM) and frequency (FM) modulation signals. We demonstrate this by using two different atomic species in order to detect and receive AM and FM modulated signals in stereo. Also, in this paper we investigate the effect of Gaussian noise on the ability to receive AM/FM signals. These results illustrate the multi-band (or multi-channel) receiving capability of a atom-based receiver/antenna to produce high fidelity stereo reception from both AM and FM signals. This paper shows an interesting way of applying the relatively newer (and something esoteric) field of quantum-optics and atomic-physics to the century old topic of radio reception.

Embedding a Rydberg Atom-Based Sensor Into an Antenna for Phase and Amplitude Detection of Radio-Frequency Fields and Modulated Signals

“…The atom-based receiver interacts with noise in a different manner than conventional systems and as such may be less susceptible to noise. This is indicated in [24], [27], where E-field strengths and modulated signals could be measured and detected in the presence of band-limited white Gaussian noise for low CW-signal to noise-power ratio conditions. While the bandwidth of these Rydberg-atom receivers/sensors depend on the Rydberg state chosen, in general, the bandwidth is limited by the response time of the atomic transition, which is on the order of 10 MHz [29], [39], and [40].…”

“…However, we can make a few preliminary observations concerning some of the aspects of Rydberg atom-based systems. Rydberg atom-based receivers and sensors have potential advantages over conventional radio technologies, which include: (1) micron-size sensors over a frequency range of 500 MHz to 1 THz [6], [7], (2) multiband (or mutli-channel) operation in one compact vapor cell [27], [38], (3) the possibility of being less susceptible to noise [24] and [27], (4) ultra-high sensitivity reception from 500 MHz to 1 THz [28] with sub Hz frequency resolution, and (5) no need for traditional down-conversion electronics because the atoms automatically down-convert the phase modulated signals to an IF. Furthermore, the Rydberg atom-based receiver has the possibility of being less affected by ''spoofing'' and ''jamming'' (as well as noise) when compared to conventional systems.…”

Weak electric-field detection with sub-1 Hz resolution at radio frequencies using a Rydberg atom-based mixer

“…Under these conditions an incident RF field operating near the frequency of 19.626 GHz drives the 34D 5/2 → 35P 3/2 transition. With the probe arXiv:1903.09712v1 [quant-ph] 22 Mar 2019 laser frequency fixed on resonance with the D2 transition, the transmission through the vapor cell is in general reduced when in the presence of the applied RF field. For appreciable field strengths the atoms are driven to the Autler-Towns regime 12 which splits the observed EIT peak in the probe laser transmission spectrum.…”

Detecting and Receiving Phase-Modulated Signals With a Rydberg Atom-Based Receiver

“…20 , and further developments are found in Refs. [21][22][23][24][25][26] . Most of these demonstrations are limited to amplitude modulation (AM) and/or frequency modulation (FM) schemes.…”