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arXiv:0710.2116 · Physical Review Letters

Atom Detection and Photon Production in a Scalable, Open, Optical Microcavity

Michael Trupke, J. Goldwin, Benoît Darquié, G. Dutier, S. Eriksson, J. P. Ashmore, Edward A. Hinds

Published Aug 8, 2007• 111 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A microfabricated Fabry-Perot optical resonator has been used for atom detection and photon production with less than 1 atom on average in the cavity mode. Our cavity design combines the intrinsic scalability of microfabrication processes with direct coupling of the cavity field to single-mode optical waveguides or fibers. The presence of the atom is seen through changes in both the intensity and the noise characteristics of probe light reflected from the cavity input mirror. An excitation laser passing transversely through the cavity triggers photon emission into the cavity mode and hence into the single-mode fiber. These are first steps toward building an optical microcavity network on an atom chip for applications in quantum information processing.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.99.063601

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A microfabricated Fabry-Perot optical resonator has been used for atom detection and photon production with less than 1 atom on average in the cavity mode. Our cavity design combines the intrinsic scalability of microfabrication processes with direct coupling of the cavity field to single-mode optical waveguides or fibers. The presence of the atom is seen through changes in both the intensity and the noise characteristics of probe light reflected from the cavity input mirror. An excitation laser passing transversely through the cavity triggers photon emission into the cavity mode and hence into the single-mode fiber. These are first steps toward building an optical microcavity network on an atom chip for applications in quantum information processing.
We present a microfabricated optical cavity, which combines a very small mode volume with high finesse. In contrast to other micro-resonators, such as microspheres, the structure we have built gives atoms and molecules direct access to the high-intensity part of the field mode, enabling them to interact strongly with photons in the cavity for the purposes of detection and quantum-coherent manipulation. Light couples directly in and out of the resonator through an optical fiber, avoiding the need for sensitive coupling optics. This renders the cavity particularly attractive as a component of a lab-on-a-chip, and as a node in a quantum network.
We report the development of a fiber-based, tunable optical cavity with open access. The cavity is of the Fabry-Perot type and is formed with miniature spherical mirrors positioned on the end of single- or multi-mode optical fibers by a transfer technique which involves lifting a high-quality mirror from a smooth convex substrate, either a ball lens or micro-lens. The cavities typically have a finesse of sim1,000\\sim 1,000sim1,000 and a mode volume of 600 mu\\mumum3^33. We demonstrate the detection of small ensembles of cold Rb atoms guided through such a cavity on an atom chip.
This thesis presents work undertaken with cold rubidium atoms interacting with an optical microcavity. The optical microcavity used is unique in its design, being formed between an optical fibre and silicon micromirror. This allows direct optical access to the cavity mode, whilst the use of microfabrication techniques in the design means that elements of the system are inherently scalable. In addition, the parameters of the system are such that a single atom has a substantial impact on the cavity field. In this system, two types of signal arise from the atoms' interaction with the cavity field; a `reflection' signal and a `fluorescence' signal. A theoretical description for these signals is presented, followed by experiments which characterise the signals under a variety of experimental conditions. The thesis then explores two areas: the use of the microcavity signals for atom detection and the investigation of how higher atom numbers and, as a result, a larger cooperative interaction between the atoms and the cavity field, impacts the signals. First, the use of these signals to detect an effective single atom and individual atoms whilst falling and trapped is explored. The effectiveness of detection is parameterised in terms of detection confidence and signal to noise ratio, detection fidelity and dynamic range. In the second part of this thesis, the effect of higher atom numbers on the reflection and fluorescence signals is investigated. A method for increasing the atom number is presented, alongside experiments investigating the impact on the measured signals. This is followed by experiments which explore the dispersive nature of the atom-cavity interaction by measuring the excitation spectrum of the system in reflection and fluorescence. In doing so, it is shown that, for weak coupling, these two signals are manifestly different.
In this paper, we realize a scalable micromirror suitable for atom chip based cavity quantum electrodynamics applications. A very low surface roughness of 2.2 Å rms on the silicon cavity mirrors is achieved using chemical dry etching along with plasma and oxidation smoothing. Our Fabry–Perot cavity comprised of these mirrors currently demonstrates the highest finesse, F=64 000, using microfabricated mirrors. We compute a single atom cooperativity for our cavities of more than 200, making them promising candidates for detecting individual atoms and for quantum information applications on a chip.
The development of a fiber-based, tunable optical cavity with open access is reported. The cavity is of the Fabry-Pérot type and is formed with miniature spherical mirrors positioned on the end of single- or multimode optical fibers by a transfer technique, which involves lifting a high-quality mirror from a smooth convex substrate, either a ball lens or microlens. The cavities typically have a finesse of ∼1000 and a mode volume of 600μm3. The detection of small ensembles of cold Rb atoms guided through such a cavity on an atom chip is demonstrated.
This thesis describes the first experimentally achieved coupling of a single atomic ion to an optical fibre-cavity as well as the first photonic interaction between a single ion and a single semiconductor quantum dot. The newly developed apparatus stores a single Yb+ ion in a radio-frequency Paultrap. There the ion is overlapped in-situ with the field of a miniature Fabry-Perot cavity which is mounted on a 3D-translation stage. The key elements of the setup are the cavity mirrors which are microfabricated onto the front facets of optical fibres. The small size of these mirrors are ideal for integration with an electrode structure of similar dimensions. Moreover these cavities are intrinsically fibre coupled and thereby well suited for distributed networks based on photonic interaction. We focus in our studies of the cavity-ion interaction on the application of the cavity as a converter between atomic and photonic excitations. To this end, we investigate the probability of the ion to emit photons into the cavity mode and find that this rate exceeds the natural spontaneous emission rate of the transition. We confirm that the emitted light field consists of a stream of single photons by measuring the second order correlation function. Furthermore, when prepared in a single Zeeman state, the emission process correlates the polarisation of the photon with the spin state of the ion. Remarkably, swapping the roles of ion and light field does not affect the interaction strength, i.e. we observe strongly enhanced absorption by the ion when a faint probe beam is injected into the cavity mode. The novel cavity-ion geometry advances the prospects to reach the strong-coupling regime with single ions and the feasibility of a distributed ion-based quantum network. Finally we employ the cavity-enhanced absorption to demonstrate photonic coupling between an InAs/GaAs quantum dot and a Yb+ ion. The setups for both systems are spatially separated by 20 m and optically linked by a single mode fibre. Quantum dot photons are guided into the cavity and the absorption by the ion is investigated for various excitation parameters. Our results mark the first steps towards hybrid networks and set the stage for further studies of the interaction between this unequal couple.