A “real-time” guitar recording using Rydberg atoms and electromagnetically induced transparency: Quantum physics meets music

Abstract

We demonstrate how Rydberg atoms and the phenomena of electromagnetically induced transparency can be used to aid in the recording of a musical instrument in real time as it is played. Also, by using two different atomic species (cesium and rubidium) in the same vapor cell, we demonstrate the ability to record two guitars simultaneously, where each atomic species detects and allows for the recording of each guitar separately. The approach shows how audio data (the musical composition) can be detected with a quantum system, illustrating that due to the research over the past decade we can now control ensembles of atoms to such an extent that we can use them in this "entertaining" example of recording a musical instrument.Rydberg atoms are atoms with one or more electrons excited to a very high principal quantum number n 1 . These atoms have several useful properties that scale as n. They have very large dipole moments (that scale as n 2 ). Their polarizability scales as n 7 , and their lifetime scales as n 3 . The spacing between the Rydberg levels scales as 1/n 3 . Rydberg atoms have large range interactions between each other that scales as n 4 /R 3 (where R is the inter-atomic distance) and have a van der Waals interaction that scales as n 11 /R 6 . These various properties allow for a large array of applications and interesting physics. For example, (1) the large dipole moments make them sensitive to electric fields, making for good field sensors, (2) the long lifetimes could lead to the development of new laser sources, and (3) the large interaction lengths create the possibilities for qubits and highly-entangled cluster states, just to mention a few.Significant progress has been made in the development of radio frequency (RF) electric (E) field strength and power metrology techniques based on the large dipole moments associated with Rydberg states of alkali atomic vapor placed in glass cells 2-20 . In this approach, the concept of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is used for the E-field sensing, performed either when the RF field is on-resonance of a Rydberg transition (using Autler-Townes (AT) splitting) or off-resonance (using AC Stark shifts).This Rydberg-atom based sensor can act as compact reciever/antenna, enabling quantum-based receivers to be used in communication applications to detect and receive modulated signals 21-28 . This has led to the new term "atom-radio" 26,29 . Recently we extended the atom receiver to develop a Rydberg atom-based mixer that ala) Publication of the U.S. government, not subject to U.S. copyright. b) Electronic mail: christopher.holloway@nist.gov lows for the measurement of the phase of an RF wave 30 , which was the needed missing link for Rydberg atombased quantum sensors to be able to fully characterize the RF E-field in one compact vapor cell.In this paper we illustrate how this Rydberg-atom EITbased approach can be used as a means to both record (in real time) the output of a guitar (or any other musical instrument), and to listen to the output of a guitar...

Deep learning enhanced Rydberg multifrequency microwave recognition

“…The amplitudes [7][8][9][10], phases [10,11] and frequencies [9,10] of MW fields could then be measured with high sensitivity. Based on this measurement sensitivity for MW fields, the Rydberg atom has been used in communications [7,8,12,13] and radar [14] as an atombased radio receiver. In the communications field, the Rydberg atom replaces the traditional antenna with superior performance aspects that include sub-wavelength size, high sensitivity, system international (SI) traceability to Planck's constant, high dynamic range, selfcalibration and an operating range that spans from MHz to THz frequencies [7,9,10,15,16].…”

“…One application is analogue communications, e.g. real-time recording and reconstruction of audio signals [13]. Another application is digital communications, e.g.…”

Electromagnetically induced transparency based Rydberg-atom sensor for quantum voltage measurements

“…This approach has the capability of measuring amplitude [3][4][5][6][8][9][10][11] , polarization 12,13 , and phase 14,15 of the RF field and various applications are beginning to emerge. These include E-field probes 5,6,10 traceable to the International System of units (SI), power-sensors 16 , spectrum analyzers 17 , angle-of-arrival detection 18 , and receivers for communication signals (AM/FM modulated and digital phase modulation signals) [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] .…”

Rydberg atom-based field sensing enhancement using a split-ring resonator

“…These sensors now have the capability of measuring the amplitude 2-10 , polarization 11,12 , and phase [13][14][15] of the RF field, and various applications are beginning to emerge. These include E-field probes traceable to the International System of units (SI) 4,5,9 , power-sensors 16 , spectrum analyzers 17 , voltage standards 18 , angle-of-arrival detection 19 , and receivers for communication signals (AM/FM modulated and digital phase modulation signals) [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] .…”