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Microfabricated alkali vapor cells using local sealing

Vincent N. Maurice, Ravinder Chutani, Clément Carlé, Shervin Keshavarzi, Samuel Queste, Ludovic Gauthier‐Manuel, Jean-Marc Cote, Rémy Vicarini, Rodolphe Boudot, Nicolas Passilly

Published Sep 12, 2022• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We report on a new technique to form and seal micro-fabricated cells. The technique consists in integrating single-use sealing structures actuated through laser irradiation, either to isolate cavities from each other or to connect them. Inspired by the glass-blowing techniques, we demonstrate “make-seals” and “break-seals” cells. This technique opens new venues for atomic devices.

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Versatile microfabricated alkali vapor cells using local sealing

Vincent N. Maurice, Ravinder Chutani, Clément Carlé +7 more

We report on a new technique to form and seal microfabricated cells that alleviates some of the limitations imposed by current solutions. The technique consists in integrating single-use sealing structures that can be actuated through laser irradiation, either to isolate cavities from each other or to connect them. Inspired by the well-established glass-blowing techniques, it reproduces on a wafer the “make-seal” and “break-seal” features found in conventional cell filling setups. By allowing cells to be evacuated, filled and sealed after having been fully-formed, this technique opens new venues for atomic devices. Here, we demonstrate both features and present one use case where alkali dispensers are used in association with non-noble gasses despite their gettering ability.

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Microfabricated alkali vapor cells are key to enable miniature devices such as atomic clocks and optically pumped magnetometers with reduced size, weight, and power. Yet, more versatile fabrication methods are still needed to further expand their use cases. Here, we demonstrate an approach to collectively fill and seal microfabricated cesium cells using locally sealed microchannels patterned within one of the glass substrates comprising the cells. Unlike current methods that rely on wafer-level anodic bonding as the last sealing step, an approach based on local sealing opens the path to features so far limited to traditional glass-blown cells, including the ability to deposit temperature-sensitive antirelaxation coatings, reaching lower background gas pressure without an additional gettering material or filling with diverse atomic or molecular species.

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Doug Bopp, Vincent N. Maurice, John E. Kitching

Abstract We demonstrate a new technique for filling mm-scale microfabricated silicon and glass cavities with alkali vapors at the wafer-scale. A single etched silicon wafer contains an array of cavities containing alkali precursor materials offset laterally from the cell array. The wafer is heated to create an array of alkali droplets on an upper glass wafer, which is then translated laterally under vacuum and bonded to create the cells. This technique can be implemented in a commercially available bonding tool, allows the fabrication of cells with arbitrary buffer gas contents and pressures and can potentially produce cells with dimensions below 100 µm.

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Optical pumping in a microfabricated Rb vapor cell using a microfabricated Rb discharge light source

Vinu Venkatraman, Songbai Kang, C. Affolderbach +2 more

Miniature (<few cm3) vapor-cell based devices using optical pumping of alkali atoms, such as atomic clocks and magnetometers, today mostly employ vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers as pump light sources. Here, we report on the demonstration of optical pumping in a microfabricated alkali vapor resonance cell using (1) a microfabricated Rb discharge lamp light source, as well as (2) a conventional glass-blown Rb discharge lamp. The microfabricated Rb lamp cell is a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) light source, having the same inner cell volume of around 40 mm3 as that of the resonance cell, both filled with suitable buffer gases. A miniature (∼2 cm3 volume) test setup based on the Mz magnetometer interrogation technique was used for observation of optical-radiofrequency double-resonance signals, proving the suitability of the microfabricated discharge lamp to introduce efficient optical pumping. The pumping ability of this light source was found to be comparable to or even better than that of a conventional glass-blown lamp. The reported results indicate that the micro-fabricated DBD discharge lamp has a high potential for the development of a new class of miniature atomic clocks, magnetometers, and quantum sensors.

Applied Physics Letters•Feb 3, 2014•15 citations
We report on a new technique to form and seal micro-fabricated cells. The technique consists in integrating single-use sealing structures actuated through laser irradiation, either to isolate cavities from each other or to connect them. Inspired by the glass-blowing techniques, we demonstrate “make-seals” and “break-seals” cells. This technique opens new venues for atomic devices.
We report on a new technique to form and seal microfabricated cells that alleviates some of the limitations imposed by current solutions. The technique consists in integrating single-use sealing structures that can be actuated through laser irradiation, either to isolate cavities from each other or to connect them. Inspired by the well-established glass-blowing techniques, it reproduces on a wafer the “make-seal” and “break-seal” features found in conventional cell filling setups. By allowing cells to be evacuated, filled and sealed after having been fully-formed, this technique opens new venues for atomic devices. Here, we demonstrate both features and present one use case where alkali dispensers are used in association with non-noble gasses despite their gettering ability.
Microfabricated alkali vapor cells are key to enable miniature devices such as atomic clocks and optically pumped magnetometers with reduced size, weight, and power. Yet, more versatile fabrication methods are still needed to further expand their use cases. Here, we demonstrate an approach to collectively fill and seal microfabricated cesium cells using locally sealed microchannels patterned within one of the glass substrates comprising the cells. Unlike current methods that rely on wafer-level anodic bonding as the last sealing step, an approach based on local sealing opens the path to features so far limited to traditional glass-blown cells, including the ability to deposit temperature-sensitive antirelaxation coatings, reaching lower background gas pressure without an additional gettering material or filling with diverse atomic or molecular species.
This letter reports on the generation of a tunable buffer gas mixture within microfabricated alkali vapor cells. We show that the combination of low-permeation windows with sequential openings of laser-actuated break-seals enables adjustment of a helium-neon (He-Ne) noble gas mixture, fully compatible with alkali metal dispensers. The gas reservoirs and the main cell cavities are initially sealed at the wafer level under distinct helium and neon atmospheres, respectively. Within each cell, after Cs vapor is released from the dispenser, the break-seals are successively actuated to incrementally increase the helium fraction in the buffer gas mixture. This process shifts the atomic clock frequency turnover temperature toward higher values. As an illustration, one of the fabricated cells was operated at 95∘^{\circ}∘C in a coherent population trapping clock, achieving a fractional frequency stability of 9$\times101010^{-11}$ at one-day integration time. These results demonstrate the feasibility of precisely tuning buffer gas compositions in microfabricated vapor cells and support the suitability of He-Ne mixtures for miniature atomic clock applications.
Abstract We demonstrate a new technique for filling mm-scale microfabricated silicon and glass cavities with alkali vapors at the wafer-scale. A single etched silicon wafer contains an array of cavities containing alkali precursor materials offset laterally from the cell array. The wafer is heated to create an array of alkali droplets on an upper glass wafer, which is then translated laterally under vacuum and bonded to create the cells. This technique can be implemented in a commercially available bonding tool, allows the fabrication of cells with arbitrary buffer gas contents and pressures and can potentially produce cells with dimensions below 100 µm.
Miniature (<few cm3) vapor-cell based devices using optical pumping of alkali atoms, such as atomic clocks and magnetometers, today mostly employ vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers as pump light sources. Here, we report on the demonstration of optical pumping in a microfabricated alkali vapor resonance cell using (1) a microfabricated Rb discharge lamp light source, as well as (2) a conventional glass-blown Rb discharge lamp. The microfabricated Rb lamp cell is a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) light source, having the same inner cell volume of around 40 mm3 as that of the resonance cell, both filled with suitable buffer gases. A miniature (∼2 cm3 volume) test setup based on the Mz magnetometer interrogation technique was used for observation of optical-radiofrequency double-resonance signals, proving the suitability of the microfabricated discharge lamp to introduce efficient optical pumping. The pumping ability of this light source was found to be comparable to or even better than that of a conventional glass-blown lamp. The reported results indicate that the micro-fabricated DBD discharge lamp has a high potential for the development of a new class of miniature atomic clocks, magnetometers, and quantum sensors.