Span shift and extension of quantum microwave electrometry with Rydberg atoms dressed by an auxiliary microwave field

The Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-Autler Townes (AT) splitting proportional to the target microwave electric field strength is an atom-based primary traceable standard in microwave electrometry. The minimum detected microwave electric field is limited when the EIT-AT splitting is indistinguishable. We design a method for auxiliary microwave-dressed Rydberg atoms that extends the electrometric span. We theoretically and experimentally show that the low bound of the direct SI-traceable microwave electric field is extended by two orders of magnitude, which is from several mV/cm to mu V/cm in a room-temperate Rb cell with a modest setup.

Automated summary

The study introduces a method using auxiliary microwave-dressed Rydberg atoms to extend the measurement range of microwave electric field strength from several mV/cm to μV/cm. This method can improve the accuracy and sensitivity of microwave electrometry.