Modulation transfer protocol for Rydberg RF receivers: theory and experiments

We present a modulation-transfer method to in- crease the detection bandwidth of the Rydberg RF receivers based on three-level Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) in Rubidium vapor. In this scheme, we phase-modulate the coupling laser to generate sidebands. The nonlinear wave- mixing in the atomic ensemble transfers the modulation from the coupling to the probe laser. The beat note detected in the probe laser intensity provides a new detection response to the RF field. The recorded results show a higher detection sensitivity to the detuned RF field, thus extending the bandwidth of the detector.