Heterodyne detection of low-frequency fields via Rydberg EIT with phase demodulation

Abstract: Recently, the rapid progress of quantum sensing research reveals that the Rydberg atoms have great potentials in becoming high-precision centimeter-scale antenna of low-frequency fields. In order to facilitate efficient and reliable detection of low-frequency fields via Rydberg atoms, we design, implement and analyze a special but low-cost and scalable method based on heterodyning processes under the condition of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) embedded in typical two-photon ground-Rydberg transition. Instead of relying on observing changes in absorption of light by Rydberg atoms, our method focuses on the phase modulation effect on the probe laser induced by the low-frequency fields via the Rydberg EIT mechanism and utilizes a demodulation process to accurately retrieve the signal. The general principles of our method apply to both electric and magnetic fields and it is even possible to realize the combination of both functionalities in the same apparatus. In particular, we experimentally demonstrate the full cycle of operations with respect to both cases. In the measurement of low-frequency electric fields, we discover that the Rydberg dipole-dipole interaction among atoms induce linear superposition of Rydberg states with different angular momentum that generates a first-order response corresponding to the signature of linear Stark effect. As the Rydberg atoms have excellent coupling strengths with electric fields, our results indicate that our method can hopefully reach high-precision performance for practical tasks in the future.