Data capacity scaling of a distributed Rydberg atomic receiver array
Abstract
The data transfer capacity of a communication channel is limited by the Shannon-Hartley theorem and scales as log2(1 + SNR) for a single channel with the power signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We implement an array of atom-optical receivers in a single-input-multi-output (SIMO) configuration by using spatially distributed probe light beams. The data capacity of the distributed receiver configuration is observed to scale as log2(1 + N×SNR) for an array consisting of N receivers. Our result is independent on the modulation frequency, and we show that such enhancement of the bandwidth cannot be obtained by a single receiver with a similar level of combined optical power. We investigate both theoretically and experimentally the origins of the single channel capacity limit for our implementation.