Trapped ions are one of the most advanced platforms for quantum technologies, with applications ranging from quantum computing to precision timekeeping. A crucial step towards more compact and scalable systems involves integrating photonic integrated circuits (PICs) into surface ion traps to enable on-chip light delivery and optical addressing of individual ions. Currently, most implementations rely solely on transverse-electric (TE) mode grating couplers, where the emitted light is polarized in the plane of the chip. In this work, we design, fabricate and characterize key silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) PIC components required for scaling trapped-ion based quantum systems to multiple operating zones, including incoupling structures, splitters, and grating couplers that support both TE and transverse-magnetic (TM) modes with comparable optical losses. We benchmark the PIC at 760 nm, which is a typical wavelength for Yb + -applications. The fabricated grating couplers enable the outcoupling of collimated free-space beams for both polarizations, exhibiting distinct emission angles. This dual-polarization capability gives more flexibility in polarization control and expands the accessible optical design space for trapped-ion quantum technologies.
Trapped ions provide a high-fidelity platform for quantum information processing, yet delivery of multiple, distinct wavelengths across large networks of interaction zones remains a bottleneck. Conventional free-space light delivery lacks scalability, while on-chip grating couplers suffer from narrow operational bandwidth that increases circuit footprint and optical interfacing complexity. Here we show a broadband photonic integrated circuit capable of addressing individual ions. The circuit combines a planar waveguide lens with a micromirror fabricated using two-photon polymerization at wafer scale. This implementation can address three individual ions from
λ = 405 - 880 nm with -27 dB average intensity crosstalk at
5μm pitch. We trap
40Ca+ and
138Ba+ ions above such devices, characterize optical crosstalk with barium ions, and demonstrate individual repumping of calcium ions. This monolithic photonic architecture brings broadband addressing in an on-chip modality to trapped-ion technology. More generally, integrating additive manufacturing into quantum devices is poised to unlock expanded design space for implementing novel quantum architectures.
Trapped ions are one of the most advanced platforms for quantum technologies, with applications ranging from quantum computing to precision timekeeping. A crucial step towards more compact and scalable systems involves integrating photonic integrated circuits (PICs) into surface ion traps to enable on-chip light delivery and optical addressing of individual ions. Currently, most implementations rely solely on transverse-electric (TE) mode grating couplers, where the emitted light is polarized in the plane of the chip. In this work, we design, fabricate and characterize key silicon nitride (Si3N4) PIC components required for scaling trapped-ion based quantum systems to multiple operating zones, including incoupling structures, splitters, and grating couplers that support both TE and transverse-magnetic (TM) modes with comparable optical losses. We benchmark the PIC at 760 nm, which is a typical wavelength for Yb+-applications. The fabricated grating couplers enable the outcoupling of collimated free-space beams for both polarizations, exhibiting distinct emission angles. This dual-polarization capability gives more flexibility in polarization control and expands the accessible optical design space for trapped-ion quantum technologies.
Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) offer compact and scalable solutions for trapped-ion quantum technologies. This work demonstrates photonic platforms that promise the potential integration of photonic components for light delivery and control across ultraviolet (UV) to near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. Passive waveguides and beam-shaping structures provide precise and stable optical addressing of ions, while active elements such as modulators and switches enable dynamic, on-chip control for quantum operations. Materials like aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and aluminum nitride (AlN) are evaluated to illustrate how functionality can be tailored to spectral needs. These integrated photonic systems reduce reliance on bulky free-space optics, improve alignment stability, and support future development of compact quantum sensors, atomic clocks, and scalable quantum processors.
Scaling multicolor quantum control on chip presents a geometric conflict: each added wavelength traditionally requires another routing corridor, emitter, and electrode opening, consuming trap-surface area and exposing charge-susceptible dielectric near the quantum target. This work introduces an all-planar, vertically stacked silicon-nitride architecture that co-registers independently fed optical transitions within one 24 x 24
μm footprint. For
40Ca+, the device focuses the 729.4 nm qubit and 854.2 nm repump wavelengths onto a shared site 70
μm above the upper film. A hierarchical design combines a differentiable cell search for a three-level scatterer, analytic confocal phase synthesis, and deterministic depth allocation across two etches per layer, preserving an explicit 125 nm propagation-axis line-and-space floor without grayscale patterning. Retargeting the upper-layer phase co-registers the focal maxima to within 0.1
μm in mesh-converged Tidy3D and independently constructed Lumerical FDTD models, retaining >99.9% of each color's peak intensity at the common coordinate with focusing efficiencies of 0.410 and 0.168. At 5
μm ion spacing, the qubit channel reaches -24.8 dB point crosstalk, remains below -18.0 dB across a 0.5
μm-radius positioning disk, and yields -23.0 dB symmetric-traceless field-gradient suppression. In the analytic House conductor geometry, the shared footprint provides 15.3
μm clearance to the nearest radio-frequency rail with zero RF-null displacement. By uniting separate optical inputs and transition-specific wavefronts within one ion-facing aperture, this hierarchy establishes a transferable template for addressing other atomic wavelength pairs and dense multicolor quantum interfaces.