Transfer phase of microwave to beat amplitude in a Rydberg atom-based mixer by Zeeman modulation

Abstract

Microwave phase detection is an essential technique in antenna metrology, radar, and communications. The Rydberg atom-based mixer has been successful in the measurement of the phase of a signal microwave field by creating a beat in the presence of a local microwave field, in which the phase information is transferred into the phase of the beat. In this study, we extend the function of the Rydberg atom-based mixer by adding alternating current Zeeman modulation, and find that the phase information is transferred into the amplitude of the beat, not only its phase. As the results, the phase information can be measured simply and real-time. The results show that another ‘dimension’ operation can be introduced into the Rydberg atom-based mixer to expand the functions and applications of the mixer, which is very useful for future real-time sensing applications. An experiment involving real-time measurement and phase-modulated digital communication based on the beat+Zeeman method is presented.