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Optical and Quantum Sensing and Precision Metrology

Compact laser cooling from the components up

Oliver S. Burrow, Aidan S. Arnold, Paul F. Griffin, Erling Riis

Published Mar 4, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Here we present a cold atom system, small enough to be handheld, and suitable for use in a cold atom sensor. This has been achieved by developing compact and robust components for laser cooling. Notably integrating a centilitre scale vacuum system and diffractive grating magneto-optical trap optics has been a key step in creating this compact cold atom system. The performance of these components is discussed, including the validation of vacuum by using the cold atoms to measure the vacuum pressure. Future improvements are outlined.

DOI
10.1117/12.2586817

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Here we present a cold atom system, small enough to be handheld, and suitable for use in a cold atom sensor. This has been achieved by developing compact and robust components for laser cooling. Notably integrating a centilitre scale vacuum system and diffractive grating magneto-optical trap optics has been a key step in creating this compact cold atom system. The performance of these components is discussed, including the validation of vacuum by using the cold atoms to measure the vacuum pressure. Future improvements are outlined.
Chip-scale atomic devices built around micro-fabricated alkali vapor cells are at the forefront of compact metrology and atomic sensors. We demonstrate a micro-fabricated vapor cell that is actively pumped to ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) to achieve laser cooling. A grating magneto-optical trap (GMOT) is incorporated with a 4 mm-thick Si/glass vacuum cell to demonstrate the feasibility of a fully miniaturized laser cooling platform. A two-step optical excitation process in rubidium is used to overcome surface-scatter limitations to the GMOT imaging. The unambiguous miniaturization and form-customizability made available with micro-fabricated UHV cells provide a promising platform for future compact cold-atom sensors.
Chip-scale atomic devices built around micro-fabricated alkali vapor cells are at the forefront of compact metrology and atomic sensors. We demonstrate a micro-fabricated vapor cell that is actively pumped to ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) to achieve laser cooling. A grating magneto-optical trap (GMOT) is incorporated with a 4 mm-thick Si/glass vacuum cell to demonstrate the feasibility of a fully miniaturized laser cooling platform. A two-step optical excitation process in rubidium is used to overcome surface-scatter limitations to the GMOT imaging. The unambiguous miniaturization and form-customizability made available with micro-fabricated UHV cells provide a promising platform for future compact cold-atom sensors.
Abstract The extreme miniaturization of a cold-atom interferometer accelerometer requires the development of novel technologies and architectures for the interferometer subsystems. We describe several component technologies and a laser system architecture to enable a path to such miniaturization. We developed a custom, compact titanium vacuum package containing a microfabricated grating chip for a tetrahedral grating magneto-optical trap (GMOT) using a single cooling beam. The vacuum package is integrated into the optomechanical design of a compact cold-atom sensor head with fixed optical components. In addition, a multichannel laser system driven by a single seed laser has been implemented with time-multiplexed frequency shifting using single sideband modulators, reducing the number of optical channels connected to the sensor head. This laser system architecture is compatible with a highly miniaturized photonic integrated circuit approach, and by demonstrating atom-interferometer operation with this laser system, we show feasibility for the integrated photonic approach. In the compact sensor head, sub-Doppler cooling in the GMOT produces 15 μK temperatures, which can operate at a 20 Hz data rate for the atom interferometer sequence. After validating atomic coherence with Ramsey interferometry, we demonstrate a light-pulse atom interferometer in a gravimeter configuration without vibration isolation for 10 Hz measurement cycle rate and T = 0 - 4.5 ms interrogation time, resulting in Δg/g = 2.0e-6. All these efforts demonstrate progress towards deployable cold-atom inertial sensors under large amplitude motional dynamics.
Compact ultra-high vacuum systems are key enabling components for cold atom technologies, facilitating extremely accurate sensing applications. There has been important progress towards a truly portable compact vacuum system, however size, weight and power consumption can be prohibitively large, optical access may be limited, and active pumping is often required. Here, we present a centilitre-scale ceramic vacuum chamber with He-impermeable viewports and an integrated diffractive optic, enabling robust laser cooling with light from a single polarization-maintaining fibre. A cold atom demonstrator based on the vacuum cell delivers 10710^7107 laser-cooled 87^{87}87Rb atoms per second, using minimal electrical power. With continuous Rb gas emission active pumping yields a 10−7 10^{-7}\,10−7mbar equilibrium pressure, and passive pumping stabilises to 3×10−6 3\times 10^{-6}\,3×10−6mbar, with a 17 17\,17day time constant. A passively-pumped vacuum cell, with no Rb dispensing, has currently kept a similar pressure for a year. The passive-pumping vacuum lifetime is several years, estimated from short-term He throughput, with many foreseeable improvements. This technology enables wide-ranging mobilization of ultracold quantum metrology.
Laser cooled atoms have proven transformative for precision metrology, playing a pivotal role in state-of-the-art clocks and interferometers and having the potential to provide a step-change in our modern technological capabilities. To successfully explore their full potential, laser cooling platforms must be translated from the laboratory environment and into portable, compact quantum sensors for deployment in practical applications. This transition requires the amalgamation of a wide range of components and expertise if an unambiguously chip-scale cold atom sensor is to be realized. We present recent developments in cold-atom sensor miniaturization, focusing on key components that enable laser cooling on the chip-scale. The design, fabrication, and impact of the components on sensor scalability and performance will be discussed with an outlook to the next generation of chip-scale cold atom devices.
The extreme miniaturization of a cold-atom interferometer accelerometer requires the development of novel technologies and architectures for the interferometer subsystems. Here we describe several component technologies and a laser system architecture to enable a path to such miniaturization. We developed a custom, compact titanium vacuum package containing a microfabricated grating chip for a tetrahedral grating magneto-optical trap (GMOT) using a single cooling beam. In addition, we designed a multi-channel photonic-integrated-circuit-compatible laser system implemented with a single seed laser and single sideband modulators in a time-multiplexed manner, reducing the number of optical channels connected to the sensor head. In a compact sensor head containing the vacuum package, sub-Doppler cooling in the GMOT produces 15 uK temperatures, and the GMOT can operate at a 20 Hz data rate. We validated the atomic coherence with Ramsey interferometry using microwave spectroscopy, then demonstrated a light-pulse atom interferometer in a gravimeter configuration for a 10 Hz measurement data rate and T = 0 - 4.5 ms interrogation time, resulting in ΔΔΔ g / g = 2.0e-6. This work represents a significant step towards deployable cold-atom inertial sensors under large amplitude motional dynamics.