Vapor cell geometry effect on Rydberg atom-based microwave electric field measurement

The geometry effect of a vapor cell on the metrology of a microwave electric field is investigated. Based on the splitting of the electromagnetically induced transparency spectra of cesium Rydberg atoms in a vapor cell, high-resolution spatial distribution of the microwave electric field strength is achieved for both a cubic cell and a cylinder cell. The spatial distribution of the microwave field strength in two dimensions is measured with sub-wavelength resolution. The experimental results show that the shape of a vapor cell has a significant influence on the abnormal spatial distribution because of the Fabry-P6rot effect inside a vapor cell. A theoretical simulation is obtained for different vapor cell wall thicknesses and shows that a restricted wall thickness results in a measurement fluctuation smaller than 3% at the center of the vapor cell.

Extending microwave-frequency electric-field detection through single transmission peak method

The strength of microwave(MW)electric field can be observed with high precision by using the standard electromagnetically induced transparency and Aulter–Towns(EIT-AT)technique,when its frequency is resonant or nearly-resonant with the Rydberg transition frequency.As the detuning of MW field increases,one of the transmission peaks(single peak)is easier to measure due to its increased amplitude.It can be found that the central symmetry point of the two transmission peaks f_(1/2)is only related to the detuning of MW field△_(MW)and central symmetry point f_(0)of resonant MW field,satisfying the relation f_(1/2)=△_(MW)/2+f_(0).Thus,we demonstrate a single transmission peak method that the MW E-field can be determined by interval between the position of single peak and f_(1/2).We use this method to measure continuous frequencies in a band from-200 MHz to 200 MHz of the MW field.The experimental results and theoretical analysis are presented to describe the effectiveness of this method.For 50 MHz<△_(MW)<200 MHz,this method solves the problem that the AT splitting cannot be measured by using the standard EIT-AT techniques or multiple atomic-level Rydberg atom schemes.

Air breakdown induced by the microwave with two mutually orthogonal and heterophase electric field components

The air breakdown is easily caused by the high-power microwave, which can have two mutually orthogonal and heterophase electric field components. For this case, the electron momentum conservation equation is employed to deduce the electric field power and effective electric field for heating electrons. Then the formula of the electric field power is introduced into the global model to simulate the air breakdown. The breakdown prediction from the global model agrees well with the experimental data. Simulation results show that the electron temperature is sensitive to the phase difference between the two electron field components, while the latter can affect obviously the growth of the electron density at low electron temperature amplitudes. The ionization of nitrogen and oxygen induces the growth of electron density, and the density loss due to the dissociative attachment and dissociative recombination is obvious only at low electron temperatures.