Electromagnetic frequency converter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10216062-B2
Application number	US-201616063845-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2016
Priority date	Dec 22, 2015
Publication date	Feb 26, 2019
Grant date	Feb 26, 2019

Abstract

An electromagnetic frequency converter includes an atomic ensemble; one or more first sources ( 6, 8 ) of electromagnetic radiation (P, R) to be incident upon the atomic ensemble to excite atomic valence electrons from a ground state to a first Rydberg state; one or more second sources ( 6, 14 ) of electromagnetic radiation (A, C) to be incident upon the atomic ensemble to excite atomic valence electrons from an excited state to a second Rydberg state; a first input ( 20 ) and/or output ( 26 ) for electromagnetic radiation (L) to be incident upon the atomic ensemble from the first input or received from the atomic ensemble at the first output; and a second input ( 14 ) and/or output ( 24 ) for electromagnetic radiation (M) to be incident upon the atomic ensemble from the second input or received from the atomic ensemble at the second output.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electromagnetic frequency converter for converting input electromagnetic radiation to output electromagnetic radiation of a different frequency, the electromagnetic frequency converter comprising:
an atomic ensemble;
one or more first sources of electromagnetic radiation each having a frequency selected from a set of possible atomic transition frequencies for the atomic valence electrons in the atomic ensemble, wherein the sum of the frequencies of the one or more first sources is between 600 THz and 1500 THz, wherein the electromagnetic radiation from the one or more first sources is arranged to be incident upon the atomic ensemble to excite atomic valence electrons in the atomic ensemble from a ground state to a first Rydberg state;
one or more second sources of electromagnetic radiation each having a frequency selected from a set of possible atomic transition frequencies for the atomic valence electrons in the atomic ensemble, wherein the sum of the frequencies of the one or more second sources is between 300 THz and 750 THz, wherein the electromagnetic radiation from the one or more second sources is arranged to be incident upon the atomic ensemble to excite atomic valence electrons in the atomic ensemble from an excited state to a second Rydberg state, wherein the excited state is linked to the ground state by an atomic transition having a frequency between 193 THz and 800 THz for the atomic valence electrons in the atomic ensemble, and the second Rydberg state is linked to the first Rydberg state by an atomic transition having a frequency between 300 MHz and 3 THz for the atomic valence electrons in the atomic ensemble;
a first input and/or output for electromagnetic radiation having a frequency between 193 THz and 800 THz, wherein the first input or output is arranged to be coupled to the atomic ensemble such that the electromagnetic radiation is incident upon the atomic ensemble from the first input or received from the atomic ensemble at the first output; and
a second input and/or output for electromagnetic radiation having a frequency between frequency between 300 MHz and 3 THz, wherein the second input or output is arranged to be coupled to the atomic ensemble such that the electromagnetic radiation is incident upon the atomic ensemble from the second input or received from the atomic ensemble at the second output;
wherein the electromagnetic frequency converter is arranged such that on application of the one or more first and one or more second sources of electromagnetic radiation to be incident upon the atomic ensemble, input of electromagnetic radiation having a frequency between 193 THz and 800 THz from the first input and which couples to the atomic transition between the ground state and the excited state or input of electromagnetic radiation having a frequency between 300 MHz and 3 THz from the second input and which couples to the atomic transition between the first Rydberg state and the second Rydberg state, causes electromagnetic radiation having a frequency between 300 MHz and 3 THz from the atomic transition between the second Rydberg state and the first Rydberg state to be output from the second output or electromagnetic radiation having a frequency between 193 THz and 800 THz from the atomic transition between the excited state and the ground state to be output from the first output respectively.

2. The electromagnetic frequency converter of claim 1 , wherein the one or more first sources of electromagnetic radiation comprise:
one or more first sources of electromagnetic radiation each having a frequency selected from a set of possible atomic transition frequencies for the atomic valence electrons in the atomic ensemble, wherein the sum of the frequencies of the one or more first sources is between 193 THz and 800 THz, wherein the electromagnetic radiation from the one or more first sources is arranged to be incident upon the atomic ensemble to excite atomic valence electrons in the atomic ensemble from a ground state to an intermediate excited state; and
one or more third sources of electromagnetic radiation each having a frequency selected from a set of possible atomic transition frequencies for the atomic valence electrons in the atomic ensemble, wherein the sum of the frequencies of the one or more third sources is between 193 THz and 800 THz, wherein the electromagnetic radiation from the one or more third sources is arranged to be incident upon the atomic ensemble to excite atomic valence electrons in the atomic ensemble from the intermediate excited state to the first Rydberg state.

3. The electromagnetic frequency converter of claim 2 , wherein the intermediate excited state of the valence electrons in the atomic ensemble that is reached by excitation by the one or more first sources and the excited state of the valence electrons in the atomic ensemble that is reached by excitation by the first input have the same principal quantum number but comprise a different hyperfine state.

4. The electromagnetic frequency converter of claim 2 , wherein when the electromagnetic frequency converter comprises a first source, a second source, a third source and a fourth source, the frequencies and intensities of the electromagnetic radiation from the first, second, third and fourth sources satisfy the following conditions:

Δ
5

=



Ω
4



2

Δ
4

;

⁢

Δ
6

=



Ω

2
⁢

⁢
a



2

Δ
5

;

⁢

and
⁢

⁢



Ω
3



⪢



Ω
1



,

where Ω 1 is the Rabi frequency of the electromagnetic radiation from the first source, Ω 2 is the Rabi frequency of the electromagnetic radiation from the second source, Ω 3 i

Assignees

• Univ Oxford Innovation Ltd

Inventors

• Kiffner Martin
• Feizpour Amir
• Nunn Joshua

Classifications

• G02F1/3536 Primary

  Four-wave interaction · CPC title

• G02F2203/13

  involving THZ radiation · CPC title

• G02F1/353

  Frequency conversion, i.e. wherein a light beam is generated with frequency components different from those of the incident light beams · CPC title

• G02F2201/05

  multimode · CPC title

• G02F2203/21

  Thermal instability, i.e. DC drift, of an optical modulator; Arrangements or methods for the reduction thereof · CPC title