Analytic Expressions for the Amplitude Regime of Rydberg Atom-based Sensors

In this talk, we present theoretical work on atom-based RF electric field sensing using Rydberg states in hot vapors. There are two distinct strategies to detect the electric field strength of the RF wave, namely the Autler-Townes limit, where the splitting of the dressed states is proportional to the incident RF electric field strength and the amplitude regime, where the electric field is determined by measuring the change in probe laser transmission in the presence of the RF electromagnetic field. We have uncovered analytic expressions for the amplitude regime for a two photon excitation scheme that can be extended other read-out schemes. The analytic expressions show how the scattering of the probe laser changes in the presence of the RF electromagnetic field, providing insight into atom-based RF electric field sensors. Expressions in the thermal limit with finite wave vector mismatch are also found to yield an accurate analytic approximation in the strong coupling limit. Our work extends the understanding of the detection of weak RF E-fields with Rydberg-atom based RF sensors. We address sensitivity optimization of Rydberg atom-based sensors based on the work.