Near-field antenna measurement based on Rydberg-atom probe

Abstract

Current near-field antenna measurement methods are commonly based on metal probes, with the accuracy limited and hard to be optimized due to the drawbacks they suffered, such as large volume, severe metal reflection/interference and complex circuit signal processing in parameter extracting. In this work, a novel method is proposed based on Rydberg atom in the near-field antenna measurement, which can offer a higher accuracy due to its intrinsic character of traceability to electric field. Replacing the metal probe in near-field measurement system by Rydberg atoms contained in a vapor cell (probe), amplitude- and phase- measurements on a 2.389 GHz signal launched out from a standard gain horn antenna are conducted on a near-field plane. They are transformed to far-field pattern and agree well with simulated results and measured results by using a traditional metal probe method. A high precision in longitudinal phase testing with an error below 1.7% can be achieved.