arXiv subjects

Eric Bottomley

Publications and source records attributed to Eric Bottomley.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Sensitivity Comparison of Two-photon vs Three-photon Rydberg Electrometry

We investigate the sensitivity of three-photon EIT in Rydberg atoms to radio frequency detection and compare it against conventional two-photon systems. Specifically, we model the 4-level and 5-level atomic system and compare how the transmission of the probe changes with different powers of the lasers used and strengths of the RF field. In this model, we also define a sensitivity metric to best relate to the operation of the current best experimental implementation based on shot noise limited detection. We find that the three-photon system boasts much narrower line widths compared to the conventional two-photon EIT. However, these narrow line features do not align with the regions of the best sensitivity. In addition to this, we calculate the expected sensitivity for the two-photon Rydberg sensor and find that the best achievable sensitivity is over an order of magnitude better than the current measured values of 5 uV/m/Hz. However, by accounting for the additional noise sources in the experiment and the quantum efficiency of the photo-detectors, the values are in good agreement.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2022

Comparison of Noise Temperature of Rydberg-Atom and Electronic Microwave Receivers

Microwave receivers using electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) in Rydberg atoms have recently demonstrated improved sensitivities. It is not evident how their state-of-the-art electric field sensitivities compare to those achieved using standard electronic receivers consisting of low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) and mixers. In this paper, we show that conventional room-temperature electronic receivers greatly outperform the best demonstrated sensitivities of room-temperature Rydberg electrometers in standard free-space coupled configurations. However, Rydberg-atom receivers can surpass the sensitivity of conventional receivers if resonant or confining microwave structures are designed to enhance the electric fields sensed by the atoms. For a given microwave resonator, the external (coupling) quality factor must be carefully chosen to minimize their thermal and quantum noise contributions. Closed-form expressions for these optimal design points are found, and compared in terms of noise temperature with conventional LNAs reported in the literature from 600 MHz to 330 GHz.

quant-ph↗