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arXiv:1112.4489 · Physical Review A

Photon collection from a trapped ion-cavity system

Jonathan David Sterk, Le Luo, T. Andrew Manning, Peter Maunz, Christopher R. Monroe

Published Jun 11, 2012• 61 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We present the design and implementation of a trapped ion-cavity QED system. A single ytterbium ion is confined by a micron-scale ion trap inside a 2-mm optical cavity. The ion is coherently pumped by near-resonant laser light while the cavity output is monitored as a function of pump intensity and cavity detuning. We observe a Purcell enhancement of scattered light into the solid angle subtended by the optical cavity, as well as a three-peak structure arising from strongly driving the atom. This system can be integrated into existing atom-photon quantum network protocols and is a pathway toward an efficient atom-photon quantum interface.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.062308

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We present the design and implementation of a trapped ion-cavity QED system. A single ytterbium ion is confined by a micron-scale ion trap inside a 2-mm optical cavity. The ion is coherently pumped by near-resonant laser light while the cavity output is monitored as a function of pump intensity and cavity detuning. We observe a Purcell enhancement of scattered light into the solid angle subtended by the optical cavity, as well as a three-peak structure arising from strongly driving the atom. This system can be integrated into existing atom-photon quantum network protocols and is a pathway toward an efficient atom-photon quantum interface.
Long-range transport of quantum information across a network is most readily achieved through the use of photons as the information carriers. The nodes of such a quantum network are most naturally a quantum memory or information processor, which typically do not rely upon photonic qubits. Realizing a large-scale distributed quantum network therefore requires an efficient interface between the two physical manifestations of the quantum information. The most promising platform for realizing a quantum computer is the manipulation of trapped atomic ions, as this system has demonstrated all the fundamental requirements to realize a quantum computer. Additionally, trapped ions posses long coherence times necessary for quantum memories. The interface between atomic and photonic qubits relies on a high photon emission rate into the collected solid angle. Most methods of photon collection for quantum networks use a high numerical aperture microscope objective, which only collects on the order of 1% of all the emitted photons. This results in a small probability of successfully linking two quantum nodes. In this work, I present the design, simulation, and implementation of a trapped ion cavity QED system capable of improving the photon collection efficiency. A single ytterbium ion is coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity. The photon scatter rate into the cavity mode is enhanced by a factor of 130 over the free-space scatter rate into the cavity solid angle. This represents the first step towards realizing a protocol to entangle the polarization of an emitted photon to the Zeeman sublevels of the ion with high photon collection efficiency. Simulations of the experimental system indicate that with an optical cavity up to 4% of the light emitted by the ion can be collected.
Ion trap systems allow the faithful storage and manipulation of qubits encoded in the energy levels of the ions, and can be interfaced with photonic qubits that can be transmitted to connect remote quantum systems. Single photons transmitted from two remote sites, each entangled with one quantum memory, can be used to entangle distant quantum memories by interfering on a beam splitter. Efficient remote entanglement generation relies upon efficient light collection from single ions into a single mode fiber. This can be realized by integrating an ion trap with an optical cavity and employing the Purcell effect for enhancing the light collection. Remote entanglement can be used as a resource for a quantum repeater for provably secure long-distance communication or as a method for communicating within a distributed quantum information processor. I present the integration of a 1 mm optical cavity with a micro-fabricated surface ion trap. The plano-concave cavity is oriented normal to the chip surface where the planar mirror is attached underneath the trap chip. The cavity is locked using a 780 nm laser which is stabilized to Rubidium and shifted to match the 369 nm Doppler transition in Ytterbium. The linear ion trap allows ions to be shuttled in and out of the cavity mode. The Purcell enhancement of spontaneous emission into the cavity mode would then allow efficient collection of the emitted photons, enabling faster remote entanglement generation.
We present the realization of a combined trapped-ion and optical cavity system, in which a single Yb(+) ion is confined by a micron-scale ion trap inside a 230 μm-long optical fiber cavity. We characterize the spatial ion-cavity coupling and measure the ion-cavity coupling strength using a cavity-stimulated Λ transition. Owing to the small mode volume of the fiber resonator, the coherent coupling strength between the ion and a single photon exceeds the natural decay rate of the dipole moment. This system can be integrated into ion-photon quantum networks and is a step towards cavity quantum electrodynamics based quantum information processing with trapped ions.
Combining optical cavities with trapped atomic ions is a powerful tool to investigate the interaction of light with matter on the most fundamental scale: a single atom with a single particle of light. Recent advances have not only demonstrated the emission of single photons, ion-photon entanglement and ion-ion entanglement but paved the way to use these systems in modern quantum technologies. Ion-cavity systems are now one of the most promising technologies for realising a scalable quantum computer and quantum networks. While the integration of optical cavities and ion traps is challenging, new techniques and technologies made it possible to demonstrate important building blocks for such systems.
We investigate the coupling of a single trapped ion to a miniature optical cavity operating in the ultraviolet. Our cavity provides a source of single photons at a high rate into a single spatial mode. Using our apparatus, we have demonstrated the highest atom-cavity coupling rate achieved with a single ion by an order of magnitude. When the ion is continuously excited, we observe phase-sensitive correlations between emission into free-space and into the cavity mode, which can be explained by a cavity induced back-action effect on a driven dipole. We demonstrate coherent manipulation of a hyperfine qubit and ultra-short optical π\piπ rotations, which are essential tools for creation and detection of spin-photon entanglement. To this end, we have developed optical fibre-based Fabry-Perot cavities in the ultraviolet spectral range. These cavities operate near the primary dipole transition of Yb at 370 nm, and allow us to couple a pure atomic two-level system offered by a single trapped ion to the cavity mode. A new Paul trap apparatus in an ultra-high vacuum chamber has been built which allows for the integration of these cavities at very small ion-mirror separations. In order for independent operation of the trap, a compact system of diode lasers has been built which are stabilised to low-drift optical reference cavities. Coherent control of the hyperfine qubit in Yb 171 is achieved through application of microwave radiation, and ultra-short optical π\piπ rotations are performed with resonant light pulses derived from a frequency-doubled mode-locked titanium-sapphire laser. The experiment is controlled through a system of hardware and software which has been developed in a modular fashion and will allow for efficient control on the nanosecond time-scale when several such systems are interconnected. The success of our system opens the door to future experiments with trapped ions which will reach the strong coupling regime with a single ion. Furthermore, when operated in the fast-cavity regime, systems based on our approach will enable high-efficiency collection of photons from the ion into the single mode of an optical fibre. These systems will allow for the generation of distributed entanglement and will prove ideal as nodes in a larger quantum network of trapped ions.
Underlying matter and light are their building blocks of tiny atoms and photons. The ability to control and utilize matter-light interactions down to the elementary single atom and photon level at the nano-scale opens up exciting studies at the frontiers of science with applications in medicine, energy, and information technology. Of these, an intriguing front is the development of quantum networks where N >> 1 single-atom nodes are coherently linked by single photons, forming a collective quantum entity potentially capable of performing quantum computations and simulations. Here, a promising approach is to use optical cavities within the setting of cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED). However, since its first realization in 1992 by Kimble et al., current proof-of-principle experiments have involved just one or two conventional cavities. To move beyond to N >> 1 nodes, in this thesis we investigate a platform born from the marriage of cavity QED and nanophotonics, where single atoms at ~100 nm near the surfaces of lithographically fabricated dielectric photonic devices can strongly interact with single photons, on a chip. Particularly, we experimentally investigate three main types of devices: microtoroidal optical cavities, optical nanofibers, and nanophotonic crystal based structures. With a microtoroidal cavity, we realized a robust and efficient photon router where single photons are extracted from an incident coherent state of light and redirected to a separate output with high efficiency. We achieved strong single atom-photon coupling with atoms located ~100 nm near the surface of a microtoroid, which revealed important aspects in the atom dynamics and QED of these systems including atom-surface interaction effects. We present a method to achieve state-insensitive atom trapping near optical nanofibers, critical in nanophotonic systems where electromagnetic fields are tightly confined. We developed a system that fabricates high quality nanofibers with high controllability, with which we experimentally demonstrate a state-insensitive atom trap. We present initial investigations on nanophotonic crystal based structures as a platform for strong atom-photon interactions. The experimental advances and theoretical investigations carried out in this thesis provide a framework for and open the door to strong single atom-photon interactions using nanophotonics for chip-integrated quantum networks.