Rydberg Atomic Quantum Receivers for Wireless Communications: Two-Color vs. Three-Color Excitation

2026-03-25

AI Summary

This work proposes an all-red/infrared-driven three-color five-level Rydberg atomic receiver architecture that overcomes key limitations of conventional two-color four-level systems—namely, the high cost of blue lasers, Doppler-broadening-induced sensitivity degradation, and inability to detect low-frequency signals. By leveraging a three-photon resonance scheme, the design simultaneously suppresses Doppler broadening and enables low-frequency signal reception. The study further introduces, for the first time, an end-to-end equivalent baseband model to quantitatively assess system performance. Eliminating the need for blue lasers, the proposed approach achieves significantly enhanced sensitivity, outperforming both traditional two-color four-level Rydberg receivers and classical conductor antennas. It offers compelling advantages in power-constrained, wide-spectrum-access scenarios while revealing an intrinsic trade-off between sensitivity and channel capacity.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Search and Optimization: Mixed Discrete/Continuous Search
• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and multi-modal RAG
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments

Abstract

An efficient three-color (3C) laser excitation-based Rydberg atomic quantum receiver (RAQR) architecture is investigated for wireless communications, utilizing a five-level (5L) electronic transition mechanism. Specifically, the conventional two-color (2C) RAQR with the four-level (4L) excitation faces three fundamental obstacles: 1) high cost and engineering challenges due to the reliance on unstable blue lasers; 2) a fundamental sensitivity limit in thermal atoms caused by residual Doppler broadening; and 3) the inability to detect low-frequency bands due to the energy-level constraint of two-photon resonance. To address these challenges, this paper analyzes a 3C5L-RAQR architecture with all-red/infrared lasers, which not only solves the engineering cost issues but also enables effective Doppler cancellation and low-frequency detection by exhibiting the three-photon resonance. Bridging atomic physics and communication theory, an end-to-end equivalent baseband signal model is derived. Furthermore, the performance of different RAQR architectures is evaluated in terms of sensitivity, achievable capacity and spectrum access range. Moreover, we provide an exact numerical solution for practical RAQRs by employing the Liouvillian superoperator formalism. Numerical results demonstrate that the exhibited 3C5L-RAQR achieves superior sensitivity compared to the conventional 2C4L-RAQR and the classical receiver based on the conductor antenna. Finally, the inherent sensitivity-capacity trade-off is revealed, showing that the 3C5L-RAQR is more suitable for deployment in power-limited communication scenarios demanding broad spectrum access.

Problem

• Rydberg atomic quantum receiver
• two-color excitation
• Doppler broadening
• low-frequency detection
• blue laser instability

Innovation

• Rydberg atomic quantum receiver
• three-color excitation
• Doppler cancellation
• three-photon resonance
• Liouvillian superoperator