Rydberg-atom-based single-photon detection for haloscope axion searches
Eleanor A. M. Graham, Sumita Ghosh, Yuqi Zhu, Xiran Bai, S. B. Cahn, Elsa Durcan, M. J. Jewell, Danielle H. Speller, Sabrina Zacarias, Laura T. Zhou, R. Maruyama
Abstract
We propose a Rydberg-atom-based single-photon detector for signal readout in dark matter haloscope experiments between <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mrow><a:mn>40</a:mn><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mi mathvariant="normal">μ</a:mi><a:mi>eV</a:mi></a:mrow></a:math> and <d:math xmlns:d="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><d:mrow><d:mn>200</d:mn><d:mtext> </d:mtext><d:mtext> </d:mtext><d:mi mathvariant="normal">μ</d:mi><d:mi>eV</d:mi></d:mrow></d:math> (10 GHz and 50 GHz). At these frequencies, standard haloscope readout using linear amplifiers is limited by quantum measurement noise, which can be avoided by using a single-photon detector. Our single-photon detection scheme can offer scan rate enhancements up to a factor of <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><g:mrow><g:msup><g:mrow><g:mn>10</g:mn></g:mrow><g:mrow><g:mn>4</g:mn></g:mrow></g:msup></g:mrow></g:math> over traditional linear amplifier readout, and is compatible with many different haloscope cavities. We identify multiple haloscope designs that could use our Rydberg-atom-based single-photon detector to search for QCD axions with masses above <i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><i:mrow><i:mn>40</i:mn><i:mtext> </i:mtext><i:mtext> </i:mtext><i:mi mathvariant="normal">μ</i:mi><i:mi>eV</i:mi></i:mrow></i:math> (10 GHz), currently a minimally explored parameter space. Published by the American Physical Society 2024