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arXiv:2204.06149 · Physical Review A

Multigrating design for integrated single-atom trapping, manipulation, and readout

Aiping Liu, Jiawei Liu, Wei Peng, Xin‐Biao Xu, Guang-Jie Chen, Xi‐Feng Ren, Qin Wang, Chang‐Ling Zou

Published May 25, 2022• 14 citations

Abstract

An on-chip multigrating device is proposed to interface single atoms and integrated photonic circuits, by guiding and focusing lasers to the area $\ensuremath{\sim}10 \ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ above the chip for trapping, state manipulation, and readout of single rubidium atoms. For the optical dipole trap, two 850-nm laser beams are diffracted and overlapped to form the lattice of a single-atom dipole trap, with the diameter of the optical dipole trap being around 2.7 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$. Similar gratings are designed for guiding a 780-nm probe laser to excite and also collect the fluorescence of $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms. Such a device provides a compact solution for future applications of single atoms, including the single-photon source, single-atom quantum register, and single-atom quantum sensor.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.105.053520

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An on-chip multigrating device is proposed to interface single atoms and integrated photonic circuits, by guiding and focusing lasers to the area

\ensuremath{\sim}10 \ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}

above the chip for trapping, state manipulation, and readout of single rubidium atoms. For the optical dipole trap, two 850-nm laser beams are diffracted and overlapped to form the lattice of a single-atom dipole trap, with the diameter of the optical dipole trap being around 2.7

\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}

. Similar gratings are designed for guiding a 780-nm probe laser to excite and also collect the fluorescence of

^{87}\mathrm{Rb}

atoms. Such a device provides a compact solution for future applications of single atoms, including the single-photon source, single-atom quantum register, and single-atom quantum sensor.

This research presents the theoretical demonstration of a grating chip that can facilitate a miniature dipole trap system for rubidium atoms. The innovative chip design is expected to form both a magneto-optical trap and a dipole trap with a single laser. The paper further examines the dependence of the chip’s focusing properties and diffraction efficiency on its structural parameters. Findings confirm the proposed design’s ability to effectively trap atoms. The research also proposes a compact vacuum chamber design compatible with the grating chip. This design incorporates a non-evaporable getter and dispenser, utilizing materials with minimal outgassing and helium permeation rates.

Hybrid quantum devices, incorporating both atoms and photons, are able to exploit the benefits of both systems. Compact, robust atom-photon interfaces will enable scalable architectures for quantum computing and quantum communication, as well as chip-scale sensors and single-photon sources. We demonstrate a new type of interface and show the interaction of cold cesium atoms with resonant photons. For this atoms are cooled in a magneto-optical trap, transferred to an optical dipole trap and positioned inside a transverse, 30 µm diameter through-hole in an optical fibre, created via laser micromachining. The intersection is orthogonal to the propagation direction of the light mode. We trap about 300 atoms at a temperature of 120µK. When the guided light is on resonance with the caesium D2 line, up to 87% of it is absorbed by the atoms. Our technique can be applied in 2-dimensional systems, i.e. in optical waveguide chips and other existing photonic systems. We also discuss the influence of hole shapes on transmission and prospects of adding a micro-cavity.

A free-space-to-chip pipeline is proposed for the efficient transportation of single atoms from a magneto-optical trap to an on-chip evanescent-field trap. Due to the reflection of the dipole laser on the chip surface, the conventional conveyor-belt approach can transport only atoms in close proximity to the chip surface, with a distance of about one wavelength. This limitation hinders the efficient interaction between the atom and the on-chip waveguide devices. Here, a two-layer photonic chip architecture is proposed to realize a free-space-to-chip atom pipeline. By employing a diffraction beam of the integrated grating with an incident angle of the Brewster angle, the reflection of the dipole laser is suppressed, allowing the atoms to be brought to the chip surface with a distance of only

100\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}

. The pipeline is verified numerically and provides a reliable atom source for a hybrid photonic-atom chip.

An integrated platform, consisting of two superimposed holographic gratings (SHGs) on the cross-section of waveguides, has been proposed to facilitate atom trapping, excitation, and fluorescence collection on a chip. Two blue-detuned vortex beams diffracted from the SHGs can create an optical dipole trap, enabling the trapping of atoms without interference from the trapping optical field. A Gaussian beam is diffracted to interact with the trapped atoms, and their fluorescence is collected by the SHGs for detection. For the 87Rb atom, the numerical results show that a trap depth of 0.435 mK can be achieved with an incident power of 100 mW at wavelengths of 760 and 765 nm, respectively. The calculated collection efficiency of the SHGs at 780 nm can reach 1.03% from atoms positioned 5 μm above the surface of the chip. This setup presents a promising method for integrating atoms and photons on a chip.