Realizing Quantum Wireless Sensing Without Extra Reference Sources: Architecture, Algorithm, and Sensitivity Maximization

Abstract: Rydberg Atomic REceivers (RAREs) have shown compelling advantages in the precise measurement of radio-frequency signals, empowering quantum wireless sensing. Existing RARE-based sensing systems primarily rely on the heterodyne-sensing technique, which introduces an extra reference source to serve as the atomic mixer. However, this approach entails a bulky transceiver architecture and is limited in the supportable sensing bandwidth. To address these challenges, we propose self-heterodyne sensing, a novel concept where the self-interference caused by the transmitter acts as the reference signal. It is shown that a self-heterodyne RARE functions as an atomic autocorrelator, eliminating the need for extra reference sources while supporting sensing signals with much wider bandwidth than the conventional heterodyne-sensing method. Next, a two-stage algorithm is devised to estimate the target range for self-heterodyne RAREs. This algorithm is shown to closely approach the Cramer-Rao lower bound. Furthermore, we introduce the power-trajectory (P-trajectory) design for RAREs, which maximizes the sensing sensitivity through time-varying transmission power optimization. A heuristic P-trajectory is developed to capture the profile of the asymptotically optimal time-varying power. This design is then extended to practical P-trajectories by incorporating the transmitter power constraints. Numerical results validate the superiority of the proposed designs for quantum wireless sensing.