High-dynamic-range microwave sensing using atomic Rabi resonances

Detection of the microwave (MW) field with high accuracy is very important in the physical science and engineering fields. Herein, an atomic Rabi resonance-based MW magnetic field sensor with a high-dynamic-range is reported, where α and β Rabi resonances are used to measure MW fields. In MW measurement experiments, the sensor successfully measured a magnetic field of about 10 nT at 9.2 GHz using the α Rabi resonance line on the cesium clock transition and continuously detected the MW magnetic field in the X-band over a high dynamic power range of >60 dB from the β Rabi resonance. Finally, the MW power frequency shift and power broadening are investigated to support more sensitive field measurements. The proposed MW detection method can be extended to cover a higher dynamic range and a wider frequency band by applying stronger excitations and exploring non-clock atomic transitions, respectively. In addition to MW magnetic field sensing, other potential application of the proposed method can be explored, including SI-traceable MW calibration and atomic communication.