1. MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurement, Hubei Key Laboratory of Gravitation and Quantum Physics, PGMF, Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China 2. Graduate School of China Academy of Engineering Physics, Beijing 100193, China 3. School of Physics and Astronomy and Centre for the Mathematics and Theoretical Physics of Quantum Non-equilibrium Systems, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
Stabilizing important physical quantities to atom-based standards lies at the heart of modern atomic, molecular and optical physics, and is widely applied to the field of precision metrology. Of particular importance is the atom-based microwave field amplitude stabilizer, the so-called atomic candle. Previous atomic candles are realized with atoms in their ground state, and hence suffer from the lack of frequency band tunability and small stabilization bandwidth, severely limiting their development and potential applications. To tackle these limitations, we employ microwave-dressed Rydberg atoms to realize a novel atomic candle that features multi-band frequency tunability and large stabilization bandwidth. We demonstrate amplitude stabilization of microwave field from C-band to Ka-band, which could be extended to quasi-DC and terahertz fields by exploring abundant Rydberg levels. Our atomic candle achieves stabilization bandwidth of 100 Hz, outperforming previous ones by more than two orders of magnitude. Our simulation indicates the stabilization bandwidth can be further increased up to 100 kHz. Our work paves a route to develop novel electric field control and applications with a noise-resilient, miniaturized, sensitive and broadband atomic candle.
G. Spitler L., Scholz P., W. T. Hessels J., Bogdanov S., Brazier A., Camilo F., Chatterjee S., M. Cordes J., Crawford F., Deneva J.. et al.. A repeating fast radio burst. Nature, 2016, 531(7593): 202 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17168
2
M. Shannon R., P. Macquart J., W. Bannister K., D. Ekers R., W. James C., Osłowski S., Qiu H., Sammons M., W. Hotan A., A. Voronkov M.. et al.. The dispersion–brightness relation for fast radio bursts from a wide-field survey. Nature, 2018, 562(7727): 386 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0588-y
3
Marcote B., Nimmo K., W. T. Hessels J., P. Tendulkar S., G. Bassa C., Paragi Z., Keimpema A., Bhardwaj M., Karuppusamy R., M. Kaspi V.. et al.. A repeating fast radio burst source localized to a nearby spiral galaxy. Nature, 2020, 577(7789): 190 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1866-z
4
Bae S., R. Levick S., Heidrich L., Magdon P., F. Leutner B., Wöllauer S., Serebryanyk A., Nauss T., Krzystek P., M. Gossner M., Schall P., Heibl C., Bässler C., Doerfler I., D. Schulze E., S. Krah F., Culmsee H., Jung K., Heurich M., Fischer M., Seibold S., Thorn S., Gerlach T., Hothorn T., W. Weisser W., Müller J.. Radar vision in the mapping of forest biodiversity from space. Nat. Commun., 2019, 10(1): 4757 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12737-x
5
E. Alsdorf D., M. Melack J., Dunne T., A. K. Mertes L., L. Hess L., C. Smith L.. Interferometric radar measurements of water level changes on the Amazon flood plain. Nature, 2000, 404(6774): 174 https://doi.org/10.1038/35004560
Ospelkaus C., Warring U., Colombe Y., R. Brown K., M. Amini J., Leibfried D., J. Wineland D.. Microwave quantum logic gates for trapped ions. Nature, 2011, 476(7359): 181 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10290
8
Swan-Wood T., G. Coffer J., C. Camparo J.. Precision measurements of absorption and refractive-index using an atomic candle. IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., 2001, 50(5): 1229 https://doi.org/10.1109/19.963189
9
James C., Applications of the atomic candle: Accessing low-frequency amplitude variations via an atomic time interval, in: Proc. SPIE. 2003
10
F. Cao M., Control and characterisation of a Rydberg spin system to explore many-body physics, Doctoral dissertation
11
Gozzelino M., Micalizio S., Levi F., Godone A., E. Calosso C.. Reducing cavity-pulling shift in Ramsey-operated compact clocks. IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control, 2018, 65(7): 1294 https://doi.org/10.1109/TUFFC.2018.2828987
12
I. Yudin V., V. Taichenachev A., Y. Basalaev M., Zanon-Willette T., W. Pollock J., Shuker M., A. Donley E., Kitching J.. Generalized Autobalanced Ramsey Spectroscopy of Clock Transitions. Phys. Rev. Appl., 2018, 9(5): 054034 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.054034
13
C. Camparo J.. Atomic stabilization of electromagnetic field strength using Rabi resonances. Phys. Rev. Lett., 1998, 80(2): 222 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.222
14
G. Coffer J., C. Camparo J.. Atomic stabilization of field intensity using Rabi resonances. Phys. Rev. A, 2000, 62(1): 013812 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.62.013812
15
G. Coffer J., Sickmiller B., Presser A., C. Camparo J.. Line shapes of atomic-candle-type Rabi resonances. Phys. Rev. A, 2002, 66(2): 023806 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.66.023806
F. Gallagher T.Atoms Rydberg, Cambridge Monographs on Atomic, Molecular and Chemical Physics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994
18
G. Bason M., Tanasittikosol M., Sargsyan A., K. Mohapatra A., Sarkisyan D., M. Potvliege R., S. Adams C.. Enhanced electric field sensitivity of RF-dressed Rydberg dark states. New J. Phys., 2010, 12(6): 065015 https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/12/6/065015
19
A. Sedlacek J., Schwettmann A., Kübler H., Löw R., Pfau T., P. Shaffer J.. Microwave electrometry with Rydberg atoms in a vapour cell using bright atomic resonances. Nat. Phys., 2012, 8(11): 819 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2423
20
Q. Fan H., Kumar S., Daschner R., Kübler H., P. Shaffer J.. Subwavelength microwave electric-field imaging using Rydberg atoms inside atomic vapor cells. Opt. Lett., 2014, 39(10): 3030 https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.39.003030
21
A. Anderson D., A. Miller S., Raithel G., A. Gordon J., L. Butler M., L. Holloway C.. Optical measurements of strong microwave fields with Rydberg atoms in a vapor cell. Phys. Rev. Appl., 2016, 5(3): 034003 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.5.034003
22
T. Simons M., A. Gordon J., L. Holloway C.. Simultaneous use of Cs and Rb Rydberg atoms for dipole moment assessment and RF electric field measurements via electromagnetically induced transparency. J. Appl. Phys., 2016, 120(12): 123103 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4963106
23
Song Z., Liu H., Liu X., Zhang W., Zou H., Zhang J., Qu J.. Rydberg-atom-based digital communication using a continuously tunable radio-frequency carrier. Opt. Express, 2019, 27(6): 8848 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.008848
24
A. Anderson D., E. Sapiro R., Raithel G.. Rydberg atoms for radio-frequency communications and sensing: Atomic receivers for pulsed RF field and phase detection. IEEE Aerosp. Electron. Syst. Mag., 2020, 35(4): 48 https://doi.org/10.1109/MAES.2019.2960922
Y. Liao K., T. Tu H., Z. Yang S., J. Chen C., H. Liu X., Liang J., D. Zhang X., Yan H., L. Zhu S.. Microwave electrometry via electromagnetically induced absorption in cold Rydberg atoms. Phys. Rev. A, 2020, 101(5): 053432 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.101.053432
27
Jing M., Hu Y., Ma J., Zhang H., Zhang L., Xiao L., Jia S.. Atomic superheterodyne receiver based on microwave-dressed Rydberg spectroscopy. Nat. Phys., 2020, 16(9): 911 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0918-5
Fleischhauer M., Imamoglu A., P. Marangos J.. Electromagnetically induced transparency: Optics in coherent media. Rev. Mod. Phys., 2005, 77(2): 633 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.77.633
30
K. Mohapatra A., R. Jackson T., S. Adams C.. Coherent optical detection of highly excited Rydberg states using electromagnetically induced transparency. Phys. Rev. Lett., 2007, 98(11): 113003 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.113003
31
Fan H., Kumar S., Sedlacek J., Kübler H., Karimkashi S., P. Shaffer J.. Atom based RF electric field sensing. J. Phys. At. Mol. Opt. Phys., 2015, 48(20): 202001 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/48/20/202001
32
Tanasittikosol M., D. Pritchard J., Maxwell D., Gauguet A., J. Weatherill K., M. Potvliege R., S. Adams C.. Microwave dressing of Rydberg dark states. J. Phys. At. Mol. Opt. Phys., 2011, 44(18): 184020 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/44/18/184020
33
G. Wade C., Šibalić N., R. de Melo N., M. Kondo J., S. Adams C., J. Weatherill K.. Real-time near-field terahertz imaging with atomic optical fluorescence. Nat. Photonics, 2017, 11(1): 40 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.214
34
S. Hsiao S., T. Chen K., A. Yu I.. Mean field theory of weakly-interacting Rydberg polaritons in the EIT system based on the nearest-neighbor distribution. Opt. Express, 2020, 28(19): 28414 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.401310
35
T. Simons M., H. Haddab A., A. Gordon J., L. Holloway C.. A Rydberg atom-based mixer: Measuring the phase of a radio frequency wave. Appl. Phys. Lett., 2019, 114(11): 114101 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5088821
36
Li Y., Xiao M.. Transient properties of an electromagnetically induced transparency in three-level atoms. Opt. Lett., 1995, 20(13): 1489 https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.20.001489
37
C. Cox K., H. Meyer D., K. Fatemi F., D. Kunz P.. Quantum-limited atomic receiver in the electrically small regime. Phys. Rev. Lett., 2018, 121(11): 110502 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.110502
38
P. Shaffer J.Kübler H., A read-out enhancement for microwave electric field sensing with Rydberg atoms, in: Proc. SPIE. 2018
39
I. Ryabtsev I., I. Beterov I., B. Tretyakov D., M. Entin V., A. Yakshina E.. Doppler- and recoil-free laser excitation of Rydberg states via three-photon transitions. Phys. Rev. A, 2011, 84(5): 053409 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.84.053409
40
M. Haynes W., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press, 2014
41
A. A. Khumaeni K., Miyabe M., Wakaida I.. The role of microwaves in the enhancement of laser-induced plasma emission. Front. Phys., 2016, 11(4): 114209 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-016-0581-6
