Interference Resilient Quantum Receivers with Rydberg Atoms

Quantum sensing has attracted significant attention due to its ability to measure physical quantities with extremely high accuracy. Rydberg atoms - typically alkali atoms with a highly excited valence electron that is far from the nucleus - exhibit strong sensitivity to external electromagnetic fields. This sensitivity leads to coupling between different atomic energy levels, which can be observed by monitoring changes in a control laser beam before and after it passes through a vapor cell containing the Rydberg atoms. By analyzing the transmitted laser signal with a photodetector, variations in transmission can be attributed to the presence and characteristics of the external electromagnetic field. Because Rydberg atoms operate in a highly excited quantum state without relying on traditional electronic circuitry, they inherently avoid thermal noise, thereby enabling more sensitive detection. In this paper, we investigate the performance of a Rydberg atomic receiver based on Rb-85 and compare it with that of a conventional receiver in detecting an 8-level pulse amplitude modulation (8-PAM) signal in the presence of off-resonant interference. We demonstrate that the Rydberg receiver can suppress interference without the need for an additional filter. Effectively, our results show that the Rydberg receiver serves as an integrated filter and demodulator, outperforming conventional circuit-based receivers in terms of achievable symbol error rate