Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09068 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866917398558277632 |
|---|---|
| author | Cui, Mingyao Zeng, Qunsong Chen, Minze Wang, Yilin Zhu, Zhiao Mao, Tianqi Zheng, Dezhi Huang, Kaibin Zhang, Jun |
| author_facet | Cui, Mingyao Zeng, Qunsong Chen, Minze Wang, Yilin Zhu, Zhiao Mao, Tianqi Zheng, Dezhi Huang, Kaibin Zhang, Jun |
| contents | Beamforming is conventionally understood as a collective property of many discrete antenna elements in both communication and radar fields, which links angular selectivity to array size, element spacing, and band-specific hardware. Here we uncover a fundamentally different beamforming mechanism achieved by a Rydberg atomic receiver: a Rydberg-atom vapor cell dressed by a local-oscillator field constitutes a continuous quantum aperture. In this regime, spatially-varying quantum coherence across the aperture provides continuous amplitude-phase control, allowing a directional beam pattern to emerge from one sensing volume rather than from an engineered array. We establish the theory of continuous quantum aperture and show that tailoring the local-oscillator field can directly program the aperture response. This enables reconfigurable single-peak, multipeak, and multiband beamforming within a single vapor cell. Experiments on a Rydberg atomic receiver prototype verify that practical beam patterns agree with theoretical predictions across aperture sizes, frequency bands, and local-oscillator configurations. Leveraging this new beamforming mechanism, we further demonstrate interference mitigation, multiuser access, and multiband multiuser access with the single-vapor-cell platform. Our results identify the continuous quantum aperture as a new operating principle of Rydberg atomic receivers and establish single-vapor-cell beamforming as an integrated and reconfigurable platform for spatially selective electromagnetic reception. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_09068 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Continuous Quantum Aperture: Beamforming with a Single-Vapor-Cell Rydberg Receiver Cui, Mingyao Zeng, Qunsong Chen, Minze Wang, Yilin Zhu, Zhiao Mao, Tianqi Zheng, Dezhi Huang, Kaibin Zhang, Jun Quantum Physics Beamforming is conventionally understood as a collective property of many discrete antenna elements in both communication and radar fields, which links angular selectivity to array size, element spacing, and band-specific hardware. Here we uncover a fundamentally different beamforming mechanism achieved by a Rydberg atomic receiver: a Rydberg-atom vapor cell dressed by a local-oscillator field constitutes a continuous quantum aperture. In this regime, spatially-varying quantum coherence across the aperture provides continuous amplitude-phase control, allowing a directional beam pattern to emerge from one sensing volume rather than from an engineered array. We establish the theory of continuous quantum aperture and show that tailoring the local-oscillator field can directly program the aperture response. This enables reconfigurable single-peak, multipeak, and multiband beamforming within a single vapor cell. Experiments on a Rydberg atomic receiver prototype verify that practical beam patterns agree with theoretical predictions across aperture sizes, frequency bands, and local-oscillator configurations. Leveraging this new beamforming mechanism, we further demonstrate interference mitigation, multiuser access, and multiband multiuser access with the single-vapor-cell platform. Our results identify the continuous quantum aperture as a new operating principle of Rydberg atomic receivers and establish single-vapor-cell beamforming as an integrated and reconfigurable platform for spatially selective electromagnetic reception. |
| title | Continuous Quantum Aperture: Beamforming with a Single-Vapor-Cell Rydberg Receiver |
| topic | Quantum Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09068 |