Ultra-sensitive broadband “AWESOME” electric field receiver for nanovolt low-frequency signals

Abstract

Longwave (defined here as 500 Hz–500 kHz) radio science drives many scientific and engineering applications, including lightning detection and geolocation, subsea and subsurface sensing and communications, navigation and timing, and ionospheric and magnetospheric remote sensing. The hardware performance (i.e., sensitivity and bandwidth) of the receivers that detect long waves determines the maximum amount of information that can be extracted from the acquired data. In this paper, we present and describe an ultra-sensitive electric field receiver that enables broadband radio reception from near-DC up to 470 kHz, augmenting the legacy of the “Atmospheric Weather Electromagnetic System for Observation Modeling and Education” (AWESOME), a state-of-the-art magnetic field receiver completed previously. The AWESOME electric field receiver uses capacitive coupling with a dipole antenna to detect the electric field components of long waves and attains a sensitivity of 0.677 nV/(mHz). This sensitivity allows the detection of natural radio atmospherics and man-made beacon emissions at a global range. The AWESOME electric field receiver can also be integrated with a magnetic field sensor for simultaneous electric and magnetic field reception. In this paper, we detail the design of the receiver, including the receiver architecture, its working principles, design methodology, and trade-offs. We showcase the receiver performance characterized through both numerical models and empirical measurements. We demonstrate a novel calibration method that is quick and straightforward, suitable for deployments in the field. Finally, we demonstrate some novel applications enabled by this receiver’s excellent sensitivity and simultaneous reception capability of electric and magnetic field components of long waves.

Seasonal Variation of the D‐Region Ionosphere: Very Low Frequency (VLF) and Machine Learning Models

“…(2010), consist of two orthogonal wire loop antennas operating in the band 0.5470 kHz, with sensitivity below 1 fT/ depending on antenna size. Recently, a complementary electric field receiver has been developed (Gurses et al., 2021) but is not used here.…”

Quantum-assisted Distortion-free audio signal sensing

“…Sensing radio-frequency signals by electric-field sensors, either conventional electronic receivers or the Rydberg atom sensors, need antennas to collect and guide the electric signals towards the sensors [25][26][27][28]. Although the receivers can be highly integrated, the dimension of antennas can scale to meters due to the signal wavelength.…”

Quantum-assisted distortion-free audio signal sensing

“…We note that the distortion-free quantum sensing technique could benefit applications, e.g., wireless communication in challenging environment 33,34 . Conventionally, antennas are the most commonly used radio-frequency sensors for sensing either electric fields or magnetic fields, and both types have achieved very high sensitivity [35][36][37] . Nevertheless, in challenging environment, e.g., underwater and underground, where low-frequency radio signals are preferred, the conventional antennas should be of the size of (sub)meters depending on the wavelength, thereby limiting their applications.…”