Floquet-sideband-enhanced shortwave electrometry with Rydberg atoms
Abstract
Rydberg atomic electric-field sensors, under the framework of optical excitation and readout, can overcome the size-to-wavelength constraint imposed by the Chu limit. However, their sensitivity for decametric-wavelength shortwave electric fields is substantially lower than that for microwave ones, stemming from the off-resonant nature of low-frequency signals with Rydberg transitions. Here, we demonstrate a high-sensitivity heterodyne shortwave sensor based on microwave-dressed Rydberg atoms, leveraging precisely modulated Floquet sidebands. Around local- and microwave-field-engineered Floquet sidebands, the steep response gradient, arising from the enhanced atom-shortwave interaction through additionally created coherent channels, induces pronounced amplification of the heterodyne intermediate-frequency signal. As a result, compared to the same atomic heterodyne setup without microwave modulation, such Floquet-sideband-enhanced shortwave measurement boosts the sensitivity by four orders of magnitude, yielding a sensitivity of -122.7 dBm/Hz for shortwave at 30 MHz. This work offers a potential route to high-sensitive portable shortwave receivers in radio astronomy, radar and long-distance communications.
Related
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- Quantum-hardware spectral co-design framework for multifrequency Rydberg electrometry
- Floquet Interpretation of Avoided Crossings in AC Stark-Shifted Rydberg-EIT Spectra
- Chiral Floquet Selection of an Algebraic Rydberg Bound State in the Continuum
- Dressed Floquet scars from protected zero modes in a Rydberg chain
BibTeX
@misc{yuan2026floquetsidebandenhanced,
title = {{Floquet-sideband-enhanced shortwave electrometry with Rydberg atoms}},
author = {Jiaqi Yuan and Yunlong Xue and Yongjie Cheng and Ruidong He and Jiteng Sheng and Yanpeng Zhang and Zhengyang Bai and Yu-Qiang Ma and Min Xiao and Zhaoyang Zhang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.06567},
eprint = {2609.06567},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.06567},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Floquet-sideband-enhanced shortwave electrometry with Rydberg atoms
AU - Jiaqi Yuan
AU - Yunlong Xue
AU - Yongjie Cheng
AU - Ruidong He
AU - Jiteng Sheng
AU - Yanpeng Zhang
AU - Zhengyang Bai
AU - Yu-Qiang Ma
AU - Min Xiao
AU - Zhaoyang Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/06
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.06567
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.06567
AB - Rydberg atomic electric-field sensors, under the framework of optical excitation and readout, can overcome the size-to-wavelength constraint imposed by the Chu limit. However, their sensitivity for decametric-wavelength shortwave electric fields is substantially lower than that for microwave ones, stemming from the off-resonant nature of low-frequency signals with Rydberg transitions. Here, we demonstrate a high-sensitivity heterodyne shortwave sensor based on microwave-dressed Rydberg atoms, leveraging precisely modulated Floquet sidebands. Around local- and microwave-field-engineered Floquet sidebands, the steep response gradient, arising from the enhanced atom-shortwave interaction through additionally created coherent channels, induces pronounced amplification of the heterodyne intermediate-frequency signal. As a result, compared to the same atomic heterodyne setup without microwave modulation, such Floquet-sideband-enhanced shortwave measurement boosts the sensitivity by four orders of magnitude, yielding a sensitivity of -122.7 dBm/Hz for shortwave at 30 MHz. This work offers a potential route to high-sensitive portable shortwave receivers in radio astronomy, radar and long-distance communications.
ER -