Atomic superheterodyne receiver Sensitivity estimation based on homodyne readout

Abstract: The electric field measurement sensitivity based on the Rydberg atomic vapor cell has great theoretical advantages over traditional dipole antennas. We combine the Rydberg atomic heterodyne receiver and the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with high phase detection sensitivity to evaluate the system reception sensitivity based on the transmitted laser phase shift. We conduct a theoretical investigation into the impacts of local microwave electric field frequency detuning, and laser frequency detuning on enhancing the sensitivity of heterodyne Rydberg atomic receiver based on MZI. To optimize the output signal amplitude given the input microwave signal, we derive the steady-state solutions of the atomic density matrix. Numerical results show that laser frequency detuning and local microwave electric field frequency detuning can improve the system detection sensitivity, which can help the system achieve extra sensitivity gain. It also shows that the phase-based readout scheme of heterodyne Rydberg atomic receiver based on MZI can achieve better sensitivity than the intensity-based readout scheme of heterodyne Rydberg atomic receiver.