美国科罗拉多大学波德分校Dangka Shylla团队揭示了强驱动里德伯原子中非对称边带产生的观测。该研究于2025年3月25日发表在《物理评论A》杂志上。

由于长期存在的里德伯态寿命限制了基态原子的刷新率，因此提高基于里德伯原子的接收器的带宽是一个持续的挑战。特别是，基于本地振荡器的里德伯混频器方法允许带宽达到几兆赫范围。研究组使用里德伯原子接收器探测激光器的外差探测来分离源自不同六波混频过程的负边带和正边带，以研究它们各自的带宽。

他们通过实验证实了负边带比正边带具有更高带宽的预测。还进一步探讨了耦合和探测激光拉比频率对带宽的影响，结果发现这与该模型非常吻合。从-3 dB滚降点开始，研究组实现了负边带和正边带的最大实验（和理论）带宽分别为10.5±0.4（11.6）和3.4±0.2（5.4）MHz，以优化场参数。这项工作深入了解了里德伯原子接收器的带宽限制特性，并为进一步优化其响应指明了方向。

附：英文原文

Title: Observation of asymmetric sideband generation in strongly driven Rydberg atoms

Author: Dangka Shylla, Nikunjkumar Prajapati, Andrew P. Rotunno, Noah Schlossberger, Dixith Manchaiah, William J. Watterson, Alexandra Artusio-Glimpse, Samuel Berweger, Matthew T. Simons, Christopher L. Holloway

Issue&Volume: 2025/03/25

Abstract: Improving the bandwidth of Rydberg-atom-based receivers is an ongoing challenge owing to the long-lived Rydberg state lifetimes that limit the refresh rate of ground-state atoms. In particular, the local-oscillator-based Rydberg mixer approach allows for bandwidths into the few-megahertz range. Here we use heterodyne detection of the Rydberg-atom receiver probe laser to separate the negative and positive sidebands that originate from distinct six-wave-mixing processes, in order to investigate their individual bandwidths. We experimentally confirm the prediction that the negative sideband exhibits a higher bandwidth than the positive sideband. We further explore the effect of coupling and probe laser Rabi frequency on the bandwidth, which we find to be in close agreement with our model. We achieve maximum experimental (and theoretical) bandwidths of 10.5±0.4 (11.6) and 3.4±0.2 (5.4) MHz for the negative and positive sidebands, respectively, from the 3 dB roll-off point for optimized field parameters. This work provides insight into the bandwidth-limiting features of Rydberg-atom receivers and points the way towards further optimization of their response.

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.111.033115

Source: https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.111.033115