Wu Kang-Da, Xie Chongwu, Li Chuan-Feng, Guo Guang-Can, Zou Chang-Ling, Xiang Guo-Yong
CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People's Republic of China.
CAS Center For Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People's Republic of China.
Sci Adv. 2024 Oct 11;10(41):eado8130. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ado8130.
In practical sensing tasks, noise is usually regarded as an obstacle that degrades the sensitivity. Fortunately, stochastic resonance can counterintuitively harness noise to notably enhance the output signal-to-noise ratio in a nonlinear system. Although stochastic resonance has been extensively studied in various disciplines, its potential in realistic sensing tasks remains largely unexplored. Here, we propose and demonstrate a noise-enhanced microwave sensor using a thermal ensemble of interacting Rydberg atoms. Using the strong nonlinearity present in the Rydberg ensembles and leveraging stochastic noises in the system, we demonstrate the stochastic resonance driven by a weak microwave signal (from several microvolts per centimeter to millivolts per centimeter). A substantial enhancement in the detection is achieved, with a sensitivity surpassing that of a heterodyne atomic sensor by 6.6 decibels. Our results offer a promising platform for investigating stochastic resonance in practical sensing scenarios.
在实际传感任务中，噪声通常被视为降低灵敏度的障碍。幸运的是，随机共振能够以反直觉的方式利用噪声，显著提高非线性系统中的输出信噪比。尽管随机共振已在各个学科中得到广泛研究，但其在实际传感任务中的潜力仍很大程度上未被探索。在此，我们提出并展示了一种使用相互作用里德堡原子热系综的噪声增强微波传感器。利用里德堡系综中存在的强非线性并利用系统中的随机噪声，我们展示了由微弱微波信号（从每厘米几微伏到每厘米毫伏）驱动的随机共振。实现了检测的大幅增强，灵敏度超过外差式原子传感器6.6分贝。我们的结果为在实际传感场景中研究随机共振提供了一个有前景的平台。
