Improvement of microwave electric field measurement sensitivity via dual-microwave-dressed electromagnetically induced transparency in Rydberg atoms

Abstract

Abstract We present a mechanism for improving the sensitivity of microwave (MW) electric field (E-field) measurement using dual-MW-dressed electromagnetically induced transparency in a 5S 1/2–5P 3/2–56D 5/2–57P 3/2 85Rb atomic coherent system. An auxiliary MW (A-MW) field is introduced into the MW E-field measurement system, which consists of a probe, coupling lasers, and a target MW (T-MW) field. When the A-MW field frequency is tuned to be the same as the T-MW field and its power is adjusted to a suitable range, the T-MW field strength can be read out effectively. Finally, the sensitivity of MW E-field measurement is improved by about two orders of magnitude compared to that without an A-MW field. In addition, this mechanism is proven to be applicable for all frequency bands covered by Rydberg energy levels. This work opens up a novel pathway for the realization of high-sensitivity MW E-field measurement with Rydberg atoms.