[HN Gopher] Rydberg Field Measurement System
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       Rydberg Field Measurement System
        
       Author : nickt
       Score  : 31 points
       Date   : 2023-10-28 15:05 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.rydbergtechnologies.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.rydbergtechnologies.com)
        
       | leetrout wrote:
       | This sounds like something from vxjunkies.
       | 
       | It's hard to understand what this is actually for. Does anyone
       | have an ELI5 for this?
       | 
       | Info on a Rydberg atom is on wikipedia
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rydberg_atom
        
         | ooterness wrote:
         | It's basically a fancy receive-only radio antenna that can be
         | tuned to any frequency.
         | 
         | Normal antennas are great, but it's very difficult to make them
         | work over more than one "octave", e.g., 1-2 Ghz or 2-4 GHz. A
         | single Rydberg sensor can tune from 1-40 GHz no problem.
         | 
         | The Rydberg sensing element is a glass tube filled with gas.
         | You use one laser to excite the gas into a state that's
         | sensitive to radio waves. You query the sensor with a second
         | laser, whose wavelength sets the radio carrier frequency of
         | interest.
         | 
         | You can set it up as a spectrum analyzer or even coherently
         | demodulate an IF or I/Q signal. But the fundamental advantage
         | is tunability.
        
         | twic wrote:
         | What, you've never used an atomic butterfly package before?
        
       | mikewarot wrote:
       | It's all marketing BS with no actual specifics. The last time
       | this came up it was supposed to be an ultra sensitive detector,
       | but it wasn't.
        
         | anonymousiam wrote:
         | That was my first impression, but having worked on the
         | forefront in this area a decade ago, I expect that it's real.
         | The technology exists, and it's now been around long enough to
         | become generally available.
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-28 23:01 UTC)