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arXiv:1904.09197 · New Journal of Physics

Microwave to optical conversion with atoms on a superconducting chip

David Petrosyan, Klaus Mølmer, József Fortágh, Mark Saffman

Published Jul 1, 2019• 49 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract We describe a scheme to coherently convert a microwave photon of a superconducting co-planar waveguide resonator to an optical photon emitted into a well-defined temporal and spatial mode. The conversion is realized by a cold atomic ensemble trapped close the surface of the superconducting atom chip, near the antinode of the microwave cavity. The microwave photon couples to a strong Rydberg transition of the atoms that are also driven by a pair of laser fields with appropriate frequencies and wavevectors for an efficient wave-mixing process. With only several thousand atoms in an ensemble of moderate density, the microwave photon can be completely converted into an optical photon emitted with high probability into the phase matched direction and, e.g. fed into a fiber waveguide. This scheme operates in a free-space configuration, without requiring strong coupling of the atoms to a resonant optical cavity.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/ab307c

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Abstract Sub-wavelength arrays of atoms exhibit remarkable optical properties, analogous to those of phased array antennas, such as collimated directional emission or nearly perfect reflection of light near the collective resonance frequency. We propose to use a single-sheet sub-wavelength array of atoms as a switchable mirror to achieve a coherent interface between propagating optical photons and microwave photons in a superconducting coplanar waveguide resonator. In the proposed setup, the atomic array is located near the surface of the integrated superconducting chip containing the microwave cavity and optical waveguide. A driving laser couples the excited atomic state to Rydberg states with strong microwave transition. Then the presence or absence of a microwave photon in the superconducting cavity makes the atomic array transparent or reflective to the incoming optical pulses of proper frequency and finite bandwidth.
Hybrid quantum systems involving cold atoms and microwave resonators can enable cavity-mediated infinite-range interactions between atomic spin systems and realize atomic quantum memories and transducers for microwave-to-optical conversion. To achieve strong coupling of atoms to on-chip microwave resonators, it was suggested to use atomic Rydberg states with strong electric-dipole transitions. Here we report on the experimental realization of coherent coupling of a Rydberg transition of ultracold atoms, trapped on an integrated superconducting atom chip, to the microwave field of an on-chip coplanar waveguide resonator. Close to the chip surface, stray electric fields lead to inhomogeneous Rydberg level shifts, which would hinder coherent interactions of atoms in a cloud with the Rydberg excitation lasers and the microwave cavity field. We, however, use optical excitation of a Rydberg state of atoms in a narrow layer with nearly constant electric field, which allows for resonant coupling of the atoms to the cavity microwave field on an appropriate Rydberg transition. We also achieve state-selective detection of the energetically close Rydberg states. We then observe and characterize cavity-driven Rabi oscillations between a pair of atomic Rydberg states. The residual damping of the oscillations is dominated by the spread of Rabi frequencies of atoms in different positions of the resonant cavity mode, as revealed by our model. Despite the technical challenges, our studies demonstrate the feasibility of coherent-state manipulation of Rydberg atoms interacting with superconducting circuits, paving the way for realization of capable hybrid quantum systems.
We demonstrate microwave-to-optical conversion using six-wave mixing in cold 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms where the microwave field couples to two Rydberg states and propagates collinearly with the converted optical field. Our experiment is performed with a free-space microwave field, and we achieve a conversion efficiency of about 55%5 for the microwave photons entering the conversion medium. In addition, we theoretically investigate all-resonant six-wave mixing and outline a realistic experimental scheme for reaching an efficiency close to 70%.
We propose a device architecture capable of direct quantum coherent electro-optical conversion of microwave-to-optical photons. The hybrid system consists of a planar superconducting microwave circuit coupled to an integrated whispering-gallery-mode microresonator made from an electro-optical material. We show that by exploiting the large vacuum electric field of the planar microwave resonator, electro-optical (vacuum) coupling strengths g0{g}_{0}g0​ as large as $\ensuremath{\sim}2\ensuremath{\pi}O(10\ensuremath{-}100)$ kHz are achievable with currently available technology---a more than 3 orders of magnitude improvement over prior designs and realizations. Operating at millikelvin temperatures, such a converter would enable high-efficiency conversion of microwave-to-optical photons. We analyze the added noise and show that maximum quantum coherent conversion efficiency is achieved for a multiphoton cooperativity of unity which can be reached with optical power as low as O(1)O(1)O(1) mW.
Abstract Ensembles of trapped atoms interacting with on-chip microwave resonators are considered as promising systems for the realization of quantum memories, novel quantum gates, and interfaces between the microwave and optical regime. Here, we demonstrate coupling of magnetically trapped ultracold Rb ground-state atoms to a coherently driven superconducting coplanar resonator on an integrated atom chip. When the cavity is driven off-resonance from the atomic transition, the microwave field strength in the cavity can be measured through observation of the AC shift of the atomic hyperfine transition frequency. When driving the cavity in resonance with the atoms, we observe Rabi oscillations between hyperfine states, demonstrating coherent control of the atomic states through the cavity field. These observations enable the preparation of coherent atomic superposition states, which are required for the implementation of an atomic quantum memory.