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arXiv:2305.10743 · Physical Review A

Proposal of a free-space-to-chip pipeline for transporting single atoms

Aiping Liu, Jiawei Liu, Zhanfei Kang, Guang-Jie Chen, Xin‐Biao Xu, Xi‐Feng Ren, Guang‐Can Guo, Qin Wang, Chang‐Ling Zou

Published Sep 18, 2023• 6 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.108.033108

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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 100nm100\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}100nm. The pipeline is verified numerically and provides a reliable atom source for a hybrid photonic-atom chip.
Trapped atoms on photonic structures inspire many novel quantum devices for quantum information processing and quantum sensing. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid photonic-atom chip platform based on a GaN-on-sapphire chip and the transport of an ensemble of atoms from free space towards the chip with an optical conveyor belts. Due to our platform’s complete optical accessibility and careful control of atomic motion near the chip with a conveyor belt, successful atomic transport towards the chip is made possible. The maximum transport efficiency of atoms is about 50% with a transport distance of 500 μm. Our results open up a new route toward the efficient loading of cold atoms into the evanescent-field trap formed by the photonic integrated circuits, which promises strong and controllable interactions between single atoms and single photons.
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Abstract Trapped atoms near nanophotonics form an exciting platform for bottom-up synthesis of strongly interacting quantum matter. The ability to induce tunable long-range atom-atom interactions with photons presents an opportunity to explore many-body physics and quantum optics. Here we implement a configurable optical tweezer array over a planar photonic circuit tailored for cold atom integration and control for trapping and high-fidelity imaging of one or more atoms in an array directly on a photonic structure. Using an optical conveyor belt formed by a moving optical lattice within a tweezer potential, we show that single atoms can be transported from a reservoir into close proximity of a photonic interface, potentially allowing for the synthesis of a defect-free atom-nanophotonic hybrid lattice. Our experimental platform can be integrated with generic planar photonic waveguides and resonators, promising a pathway towards on-chip many-body quantum optics and applications in quantum technology.
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Abstract Diffraction gratings have simplified the optical implementation of magneto-optical traps (MOTs) to require only a single input beam, however reaching high atom number and fast loading has proven to be a challenge. We equipped an atom chip with a grating surface and paired it with a velocity-tunable 2D+-MOT as an atomic source to facilitate efficient loading together with magnetic trapping. Using uniform grating illumination, we magneto-optically trap 1.0 ( 1 ) × 10 9 atoms within one second, cool them to 14.1 ( 3 ) μ K , and transfer a quarter of them into the magnetic chip trap. This is a key step towards simple portable quantum sensors employing (ultra-)cold atoms.
This thesis describes and characterizes a setup to conduct experiments combining the fields of cold atoms and nanophotonics. Furthermore, a series of numerical simulations is employed to deepen of atom transport under experimentally realistic conditions. The study of cold atoms is usually fundamental in nature and a very clean approach to investigate the laws of physics. High purity samples of atoms are cooled down to millikelvins or microkelvins. The potential landscape for the atoms can be carefully controlled using lasers and/or magnetic fields. Since the atoms' responses to electric, magnetic or electromagnetic fields are known with very high fidelity, any deviations to the state the atoms are prepared in can be precisely measured. Nanophotonics is the study of light close to or beyond the diffraction limit. In this region the field-like nature of light starts to play a role. By confining light in sub-wavelength-sized structures, high peak intensities can be achieved, giving rise to exciting non-linear optics phenomena. The strong field gradient that can be created allows, for instance, precise spectroscopy measurements, phase-sensitive sub-wavelength microscopy, as well as producing highly receptive sensing devices. Combining cold atoms and nanophotonics creates strong synergy effects. It gives access to strong coupling of light and matter. The scalability of nanophotonics now extends to atomic physics. Atoms can be trapped, coupled and manipulated at very small length scales, and in large numbers. Moreover, the potential landscape for atoms is highly customizable. The rubidium isotope 87 is used in this setup. A cloud of rubidium atoms is gathered and cooled in a two dimensional magneto-optical trap (MOT). Since the atoms are only cooled in two dimensions, they are free to escape in the third dimension and load a following three dimensional MOT. The atoms are now cooled further, compressed and loaded into an optical dipole trap. This dipole trap transports the atoms close to a sample inside the vacuum chamber. A moving optical lattice, or optical conveyor belt, brings the atoms then close to the sample surface. Now experiments can be conducted, studying the interaction of cold atoms and strongly confined light. The atom transport down to the sample surface shows some unexpected behaviour: the atoms seem to spread through the optical lattice during transport. A combination of microscopic and macroscopic numerical simulations, including genetic algorithms, are used to deepen our understanding of the underlying physics. This also allows us to get access to experimental variables that cannot be directly obtained.