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Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering

Etching techniques for realizing optical micro-cavity atom traps on silicon

Z. Moktadir, E Koukharenka, Michael D. Kraft, Darren M. Bagnall, Hugh N. Powell, M. P. A. Jones, Edward A. Hinds

Published Aug 21, 2004• 27 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have fabricated curved optical micromirrors on silicon. We expect to be able to form open optical cavities between these mirrors and plane mirrors coated on the ends of optical fibres. The curved mirror templates have been prepared with less than 10 nm surface roughness by means of isotropic chemical etching. Two different methods are used for the fabrication of the mirrors: the first method uses a silicon oxide mask, while the second uses dry etching to form an indentation in the silicon surface that is opened out by wet isotropic etching. After coating the silicon substrate with gold, good quality mirrors are obtained with R ∼ 98% in the near infra-red. We find that a reflectivity of approximately 98% can be achieved by this method. Cavities formed from these mirrors will be useful for manipulating single atoms.

DOI
10.1088/0960-1317/14/9/014

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We have fabricated curved optical micromirrors on silicon. We expect to be able to form open optical cavities between these mirrors and plane mirrors coated on the ends of optical fibres. The curved mirror templates have been prepared with less than 10 nm surface roughness by means of isotropic chemical etching. Two different methods are used for the fabrication of the mirrors: the first method uses a silicon oxide mask, while the second uses dry etching to form an indentation in the silicon surface that is opened out by wet isotropic etching. After coating the silicon substrate with gold, good quality mirrors are obtained with R ∼ 98% in the near infra-red. We find that a reflectivity of approximately 98% can be achieved by this method. Cavities formed from these mirrors will be useful for manipulating single atoms.
In this paper, we realize a scalable micromirror suitable for atom chip based cavity quantum electrodynamics applications. A very low surface roughness of 2.2 Å rms on the silicon cavity mirrors is achieved using chemical dry etching along with plasma and oxidation smoothing. Our Fabry–Perot cavity comprised of these mirrors currently demonstrates the highest finesse, F=64 000, using microfabricated mirrors. We compute a single atom cooperativity for our cavities of more than 200, making them promising candidates for detecting individual atoms and for quantum information applications on a chip.
The development of novel experimental techniques in atomic physics is allowing for the manipulation and control of atoms in structured silicon chips. These new techniques to manipulate atoms in a chip require building micro systems on chip that support actuation, alignment control and tunability for each micro component, which requires a significant integration effort. One example of a new experimental technique in atomic physics is the realization of optical cavities which is a very attractive model for quantum information and communication, because it permits the study of light-matter effect. The important exigency of an integrated micro cavity consisting of a micro mirror and a fiber optics cable are; alignment between them to form a small cavity volume and actuation to allow for adjusment of the cavity length. In this Master thesis the fabrication of 1-D v-shape or chevron thermal actuator is proposed based on the following characteristics: the actuator exploits the thermal expansion property of silicon to generate mechanical actuation, offers linear in-plane displacement, large force in small area compared to other actuators schemes and a shuttle that is capable of carrying an optical fiber that creates an optical cavity between it and a micro-mirror. Additionally, fabrication and characterization techniques are also described for the highly reflective (99.9988\\%) micro-mirrors.
We have fabricated and characterized laser-ablated micromirrors on fused silica substrates for constructing stable Fabry–Perot optical cavities. We highlight several design features which allow these cavities to have lengths in the 250–300 μm range and be integrated directly with surface ion traps. We present a method to calculate the optical mode shape and losses of these micromirror cavities as functions of cavity length and mirror shape, and confirm that our simulation model is in good agreement with experimental measurements of the intracavity optical mode at a test wavelength of 780 nm. We have designed and tested a mechanical setup for dampening vibrations and stabilizing the cavity length, and explore applications for these cavities as efficient single-photon sources when combined with trapped Yb171+ ions.
The field of atom chips is a relatively new area of research which is rapidly becoming of great interest to the scientific community. It started out as a small branch of cold atom physics which has quickly grown into a multidisciplinary\nsubject. It now encompasses topics from fundamental atomic and quantum theory, optics and laser science, to the engineering of ultra sensitive sensors.\n\nIn this thesis the first steps are taken towards a truly integrated atom chip device for real world applications. Multiple devices are presented that allow the trapping, cooling, manipulation and counting of atoms. Each device presents a new component required for the integration and miniaturisation of atom chips\ninto a single device, capable of being used as a sensor.\n\nInitially, a wire trap was created capable of trapping and splitting a cloud of BoseEinstein condensate (BEC) for use in atom interferometry. Using this chip a BEC has been successfully created, trapped and coherent splitting of this cloud has been achieved.\n\nSubsequently, the integration and simplification of the initial trapping process was approached. In all the experiments to date, atoms are initially collected from a warm vapour by a magneto-optical trap (MOT). This thesis presents a new approach in which microscopic pyramidal MOTs’ are integrated into the chip itself. This greatly reduces the number of optical components and helps to simplify the process significantly.\n\nAlso presented is a method for creating a planar-concave micro-cavity capable of single atom detection. One such cavity consists of a concave mirror fabricated in silicon and the planar tip of an optical fibre. The performance of the resonators\nis highly dependent on the surface roughness and shape profile of the concave mirrors therefore a detailed study into the fabrication technique and its effects on these parameters was undertaken. Using such cavities single atom detection has been shown to be possible. These cavities have also been sccessfully integrated into an atom wire guide.\n\nFinally a co-sputtered amorphous silicon/titanium (a-Si/Ti) nanocomposite material was created and studied for its use as a novel structural material. This material is potentially suitable for integrated circuitry (IC)/Micro-electromechanical-\nsystems (MEMS) integration. The material’s electrical and\nstructural properties were investigated and initial results suggest that a-Si/Ti has the potential to be a compelling structural material for future IC/MEMS integration.\n\nTo build all of these devices, a full range of standard microfabrication techniques was necessary as well as some non standard processes that required considerable process development such as the electrochemical deposition.\n\nThis thesis presents a tool box of fabrication techniques for creating various components capable of different tasks that can be integrated into a single device. Each component has been successfully demonstrated in laboratory conditions. This represents a significant step toward a real world atom chip device.
We report on the integration of small-scale optical components into silicon wafers for use in atom chips. We present an on-chip fibre-optic atom detection scheme that can probe clouds with small atom numbers. The fibres can also be used to generate microscopic dipole traps. We describe our most recent results with optical microcavities and show that single-atom detection can be realised on an atom chip. The key components have been fabricated by etching directly into the atom chip silicon substrate.