Quantum detection of millimeter wave electric fields with driving surface-state electrons

Abstract

We introduce a spin-based receiver to sensitively detect the electric fields of millimeter (mm) waves by using quantum interferometric approach. The proposed quantum sensor consists of many surface-state electrons trapped individually on liquid helium by an electrode-network at the bottom of the liquid helium film. A dc-current in this chip is biased to generate a strong spin-orbit coupling of each of the trapped electrons. The mm wave signals are conducted to non-dissipatedly drive the orbital motions of the trapped electrons and result in the Stark shifts of the spin-orbit dressed states of the electrons. As a consequence, the electric fields of the conducted mm waves could be detected sensitively by using the Hahn echo interferometry with the long-lived spin states of the electrons trapped on liquid helium.