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Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A Vacuum Surfaces and Films

Ultraviolet curing adhesive-based optical fiber feedthrough for ultrahigh vacuum systems

Jean‐François Clément, Denis Bacquet, Pascal Szriftgiser

Published Jun 24, 2010• 5 citations

Abstract

We present an inexpensive, simple, and robust method of making an optical fiber feedthrough for ultrahigh vacuum UHV systems. This system is particularly devoted for cold atom experiments. A drilled standard UHV DN16CF flange allows us to pass a fiber inside an UHV chamber. An optical ultraviolet UV curing adhesive is simultaneously used for holding the fiber through the flange and as a vacuum sealant. A vacuum down to 10−9 mbar is currently observed, while the optical insertion loss of the feedthrough is monitored and does not exceed 0.01 dB. In most of light-matter interaction experiments, laser light must pass through ultrahigh vacuum chambers. Although light beams can be propagated in free space through glass view-ports, more and more recent cold atom experiments use optical fibers to carry or collect light to or from a well defined area. This covers a wide variety of experiments such as atom-surface interactions or atomic samples guided inside hollow-core fibers. This kind of experiments requires continuous fibers through the vacuumatmosphere interface. A feedthrough for optical fiber based on a Teflon ferrule has been successfully demonstrated. However, this technique has several drawbacks. It requires a very high drilling precision, and as a consequence, must be accurately designed for a specific fiber diameter. As the ferrule must avoid any leaks, a constraint is applied to the fiber, which can induce birefringence and excess losses. Furthermore, as the polymer coating of the fiber ages under mechanical constraints, leaks might appear with time. We have developed a simple method to realize an optical fiber feedthrough completely free of those problems. It is based on a commercially available UV curing adhesive. The realization is easy and does not require accurate mechanical pieces. A multiple-fiber configuration is also achievable.

DOI: 10.1116/1.3448023

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We present a novel method to mount and align an optical-fiber-based resonator on the flat surface of an atom chip with ultrahigh precision. The structures for mounting a pair of fibers, which constitute the fiber resonator, are produced by a spin-coated SU-8 photoresist technique by use of deep-UV lithography. The design and production of the SU-8 structures are discussed. From the measured finesses we calculate the coupling loss of the SU-8 structures acting as a kind of fiber splice to be smaller than 0.013 dB.

This project aims to develop scientific as well as technical foundations towards realization of a novel platform for light-matter interaction based on tapered optical nanofibers that enable to interface neutral atoms in their vicinity. A setup for magneto-optical trap (MOT) has been built. Tapered nanofibers (TNFs) of sub-wavelength diameter, with transmission of 95 percent have been fabricated and characterized. Next, a nanofiber is transferred into the MOT setup and installed inside the vacuum chamber. The MOT cloud and nanofiber are made to spatially overlap inside ultra-high vacuum (UHV). Coupling of fluorescence of MOT into the guided mode of TNF has been observed. This clearly shows the coupling of atoms with the fiber-guided mode and that our interface works. In addition, 65-70 percent absorption of a free space beam by the atomic cloud has been observed and the relevant MOT parameters are obtained from it. Our efforts are directed towards observing interaction of atoms with the fiber-guided light via evanescent field. Attempts have been made to observe absorption of a probe beam through the nanofiber by the MOT cloud and techniques for switching on-off the MOT beams, the probe beam and the magnetic field are developed for that purpose. Ultimately, the goal will be to trap atoms in the vicinity of a nanofiber enabling to reach a large optical depth accompanied by the ability to reach high intensities for low optical power. I will present my work on the development of this MOT-nanofiber interface - a new promising platform for research in nonlinear quantum optics, quantum information science and technology, quantum communication and hybrid quantum system.

Compact, customizable, non-magnetic vacuum systems are a key requirement for many field applications of quantum technology based on cold atoms. We report on the development and construction of a compact, low-cost ultra-high vacuum compatible cell using the glass-ceramic MACOR. The cell offers a CF flange connection to commercial vacuum technology, as well as high numerical aperture viewports for precision optical measurements. The presented technology shows stable vacuum pressures of

< 1 \cdot 10^{-10}

mbar for more than a year since the implementation into the vacuum system of a quantum gas experiment, further proving suitability for general quantum technology applications.

A high imaging resolution or a tight focus of a laser beam imposes a certain minimal numerical aperture (NA) of the optical system. Macroscopic high NA lenses constraint strongly the spatial organization of experiments, in particular when imaging or trapping cold atoms inside a vacuum chamber. Multimode fibers, in conjunction with spatial light modulators, offer an interesting alternative to high NA lenses. Indeed, they are flexible optical waveguides with very small transverse dimensions (∼ 100 μm), and reasonably high NA (up to 0.5). For those reasons, the use of multimode fibers for imaging or laser manipulation purposes has been widely studied in the past years. Here, we transfer these techniques to the field of cold atoms with a multimode fiber forming a compact optical bridge between the inside and the outside of an ultra-high vacuum chamber. We manipulate atoms with laser beams produced through the fiber by digital optical phase conjugation with a spatial light modulator. We are able to transport a small cloud of cold rubidium atoms with a moving optical lattice at about 200 μm from the fiber tip. We can then load them in small optical tweezers with a waist of 1.2 μm. By characterizing the propagation of light modes inside the fiber, we numerically invert its transformation and we reconstruct absorption images of the trapped atoms with a resolution of approximately 1 μm. These results pave the way towards the efficient use of multimode fibers in spatially constrained quantum technology platforms relying on cold atoms.