Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Holloway, Christopher L.
• Simons, Matthew T.
• Gordon, Joshua A.
• Wilson, Perry F.
• Cooke, Caitlyn M.
• Anderson, David A.
• Raithel, Georg

Titel

Atom-Based RF Electric Field Metrology: From Self-Calibrated Measurements to Subwavelength and Near-Field Imaging

Ist Teil von

• IEEE transactions on electromagnetic compatibility, 2017-04, Vol.59 (2), p.717-728

Ort / Verlag

New York: IEEE

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

IEEE Xplore

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We discuss a fundamentally new method for electric (E) field strength (V/m) metrology applicable to the near-field. This new approach is significantly different from currently used field measurement techniques in that it is based on the interaction of radio-frequency (RF) E-fields with Rydberg atoms (alkali atoms placed in a glass vapor cell that are excited optically to Rydberg states). The applied RF E-field alters the state of the atoms. The Rydberg atoms act like an RF-to-optical transducer, converting an RF E-field strength to an optical-frequency response. In this new approach, we employ the phenomena of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and Autler-Townes splitting. The RF transition in the four-level atomic system causes a split of the EIT transmission spectrum of a probe laser into two peaks. This splitting is easily measured and is directly proportional to the applied RF E-field amplitude. The significant dipole response of Rydberg atoms enables this technique to make self-calibrating measurements over a large frequency band including 500 MHz to 500 GHz (and possibly up to 1 THz and down to 10s of megahertz). In this paper, we report on our results in the development of this metrology approach, including the first fiber-coupled vapor-cell for E-field measurements. We also discuss key applications, including self-calibrated measurements, millimeter-wave and sub-THz measurements, field mapping, and sub-wavelength and near-field imaging. We show results for mapping the fields inside vapor cells, for measuring the E-field distribution along the surface of a circuit board, and for measuring the near-field at the aperture in a cavity. We also discuss the uncertainties of this measurement technique.