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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Photonic Integrated Si 3 N 4 Ultra-Large-Area Grating Waveguide MOT Interface for 3D Atomic Clock Laser Cooling

Nitesh Chauhan, Debapam Bose, Matthew W. Puckett, Renan L. Moreira, Karl D. Nelson, Daniel J. Blumenthal

Published May 5, 2019• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe a silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) photonic integrated circuit (PIC) designed to deliver non-diverging 780nm free-space optical cooling beams to an 87Rb atomic magneto optic trap (MOT) via fiber coupled ultra-large-area 3.88mm × 2.08mm gratings © 2019 The Author(s)
DOI
10.23919/cleo.2019.8750290

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We have developed a silicon nitride based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that is responsible for the cooling, pumping and imaging of cold rubidium 87 atoms. The photonic integrated circuit consists of two chips placed next to each other and has a total area of 2x2~cm$^2$. This greatly minimizes the area needed while still having all the optical control functions to create, control and measure a magneto-optical trap (MOT). The piezo electric material Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) on the PIC is employed for phase shifting a Mach-Zehnder type configuration where extinction ratios up to 50 dB and switching speeds of 1 MHz are achieved. For the first time a two and three dimensional rubidium 87 MOT is realized using an active PIC. For the three-dimensional MOT, we measure $7\cdot 10^7$ atoms with a temperature of 270~$μ$K.

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Abstract Cold atoms are important for precision atomic applications including timekeeping and sensing. The 3D magneto-optical trap (3D-MOT), used to produce cold atoms, will benefit from photonic integration to improve reliability and reduce size, weight, and cost. These traps require the delivery of multiple, large area, collimated laser beams to an atomic vacuum cell. Yet, to date, beam delivery using an integrated waveguide approach has remained elusive. Here we report the demonstration of a 87 Rb 3D-MOT using a fiber-coupled photonic integrated circuit to deliver all beams to cool and trap > 1 ×10 6 atoms to near 200 μK. The silicon nitride photonic circuit transforms fiber-coupled 780 nm cooling and repump light via waveguides to three mm-width non-diverging free-space cooling and repump beams directly to the rubidium cell. This planar, CMOS foundry-compatible integrated beam delivery is compatible with other components, such as lasers and modulators, promising system-on-chip solutions for cold atom applications.
Cold atoms play an important role in fundamental physics, precision timekeeping, quantum sensing, and quantum computing.The production of cold atoms requires magneto-optical traps (MOTs), but current MOTs consist of a variety of complex and bulky optical infrastructures that hamper their practical application.The development of integrated photonic circuits offers the opportunity to achieve integrated MOTs.Here, we take advantage of the ultra-low loss of the silicon nitride platform to design a grating outcoupler for coupling beams from waveguides to free space.The device operates at a wavelength of 780 nm with an experimental emission angle of 24.38°.Additionally, by appropriately designing the positions of the grating outcouplers on the chip, we propose an on-chip emission system to demonstrate the MOT application.The intersection area is about 2 mm × 2 mm at a height of 6 mm on the chip.Our work provides the possibility of realizing on-chip MOTs.
We have developed a silicon nitride based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that is responsible for the cooling, pumping and imaging of cold rubidium 87 atoms. The photonic integrated circuit consists of two chips placed next to each other and has a total area of 2x2~cm2^22. This greatly minimizes the area needed while still having all the optical control functions to create, control and measure a magneto-optical trap (MOT). The piezo electric material Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) on the PIC is employed for phase shifting a Mach-Zehnder type configuration where extinction ratios up to 50 dB and switching speeds of 1 MHz are achieved. For the first time a two and three dimensional rubidium 87 MOT is realized using an active PIC. For the three-dimensional MOT, we measure 7⋅1077\cdot 10^77⋅107 atoms with a temperature of 270~μμμK.
We have developed a silicon nitride-based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that is responsible for the cooling, pumping, and imaging of cold rubidium 87 atoms. The photonic integrated circuit consists of two chips placed next to each other and has a total area of 2 × 2 cm2. This greatly minimizes the area needed while still having all the optical control functions to create, control, and measure a magneto-optical trap (MOT). The piezoelectric material lead zirconate titanate (PZT) on the PIC is employed for phase shifting a Mach–Zehnder-type configuration where extinction ratios up to 50 dB and switching speeds of 1 MHz are achieved. This resulted in the realization of two- and three-dimensional rubidium 87 MOT using an active PIC. For the three-dimensional MOT, we measure 7·107 atoms with a temperature of 270 μ K.