Characterization of Rydberg-Atom Signal Reception of Dual-Frequency Signals Coupled with Two Energy Levels

Abstract: Rydberg atomic sensors have been adopted for novel radio frequency (RF) measurement technique and the sensing capability for signals in multiple frequencies makes it attractive for multi-user communication. However, unlike traditional antennas where the signals in multiple frequencies are orthogonal, the received signals of atomic sensors corresponding to different energy levels will be downconverted to the baseband simultaneously, resulting in multi-user interference. Thus, in this paper, we analyze the mutual interference characteristics of two RF signals with different carrier frequencies coupling different energy levels. We introduce the joint response coefficient based on the receiver characteristics and analyze the interference of one user to another. We analyze the bit-error rate (BER) and symbol-error rate (SER) for two signals coupling two different energy levels. We also conduct experiments to validate the BER and SER results.