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Using Rydberg Atoms for a New SI-Traceable Radio-Frequency Power Measurement Technique in Rectangular Waveguides

Published

Author(s)

Christopher L. Holloway, Matthew T. Simons, Marcus D. Kautz, Abdulaziz H. Haddab, Joshua A. Gordon

Abstract

In this work we demonstrate an approach for the measurement of radio-frequency (RF) power using Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in an atomic vapor. This is accomplished by placing alkali atomic vapor in a rectangular waveguide and measuring the electric (E) field strength (utilizing EIT and Autler-Townes splitting) for a wave propagating down the waveguide. The RF power carry by the wave is then related to this measured E-field, which will lead to a new direct International System of Units (SI) measurement of RF power. To demonstrate this approach, we first measure the field distribution of the fundamental mode in the waveguide and then measure the power carried by the wave at both 19.629 GHz and 26.526 GHz. We obtain good agreement between the power measurements obtained with this new technique and those obtained from a conventional power meter.
Citation
Applied Physics Letters

Keywords

atom-base metrology, RF field, power metrology, quantum optics, quantum metrology

Citation

Holloway, C. , Simons, M. , Kautz, M. , Haddab, A. and Gordon, J. (2018), Using Rydberg Atoms for a New SI-Traceable Radio-Frequency Power Measurement Technique in Rectangular Waveguides, Applied Physics Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=926150 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created June 22, 2018, Updated March 7, 2019