A Rydberg atom-based amplitude-modulated receiver using the dual-tone microwave field

We propose a Rydberg atom-based receiver for amplitude-modulation (AM) reception utilizing a dual-tone microwave field. The pseudo-random binary sequence (PRBS) signal is encoded in the basic microwave field (B-MW) at the frequency of 14.23 GHz. The signal can be decoded by the atomic receiver itself but more obvious with the introduction of an auxiliary microwave (A-MW) field. The receiver’s amplitude variations corresponding to microwave field are simulated by solving density matrices to give this mechanism theoretical support. An appropriate AM frequency is obtained by optimizing the signal-to-noise ratio, guaranteeing both large data transfer capacity (DTC) and high fidelity of the receiver. The power of two MW fields, along with the B-MW field frequency, is studied to acquire larger DTC and wider operating bandwidth. Finally, the readout of PRBS signals is performed by both the proposed and conventional mechanisms, and the comparison proves the obvious increment of DTC with the proposed scheme. This proof-of-principle demonstration exhibits the potential of the dual-tone scheme and offers a novel pathway for Rydberg atom-based microwave communication, which is beneficial for long-distance communication and weak signal perception outside the laboratory.