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Chinese Optics Letters

On-chip Si3N4 grating outcoupler for magneto-optical trap in a cold atom system

Yibiao Hu, Jiajing He, Haixu Tao, Ning Wei, Kang Cheng, Zhan Yang, Xiaojie Sun, Xiaobo Li, Jun Wang

Published Jan 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.3788/col202523.101301

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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.
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 and gravitational sensing, precision metrology, and quantum computing. The three-dimensional magneto-optical trap (3D-MOT) is a fundamental tool used to create large populations of cold atoms and serves as an integral component for a wide range of quantum and atomic experiments. The 3D-MOT employs laboratory-scale laser systems to trap, cool, manipulate, and interrogate atoms and quantum states. Photonic integration has reached a point where it is possible to generate, control, and deliver light to atomic transitions and provides a path to integrated 3D-MOTs. We review progress and discuss potential paths toward integration of 3D-MOT lasers and optics with focus on the ultra-low loss silicon nitride photonic integration platform. We review 3D-MOT technology, building blocks and components, and discuss characteristics of the lasers, optics, and atomic physics package. We discuss how the silicon nitride platform can be used to perform MOT functions including cooling, trapping, and spectroscopy. An illustrative example of a rubidium photonic integrated MOT (PICMOT) is used to describe possible paths forward to integration. We also discuss how photonic integration can support lower temperatures and atom trapping and manipulation in integrated cold-atom platforms for quantum sensing and computing.
We have made magneto-optical traps (MOTs) on a chip which is able to cool and trap ~108atoms directly from a ~1cm3thermal background of87Rb. Diffraction gratings are used to manipulate the light from a single input beam to create the beams required for a MOT [1,2]. The gratings are etched into the surface of a silicon or GaAs wafer by either electron beam, or photo-lithography making them simple to fabricate and integrate into other atom chip architectures. We have developed a variety of gratings for utilisation both inside and outside a vacuum chamber - facilitating their incorporation into both new and existing devices. Unlike previously integrated cold atom sources on a chip [3,4] the atoms now sit above the surface where they can be easily imaged, manipulated and transferred into other on-chip potentials.
Magneto-optical traps (MOTs), indispensable to cold-atom-based quantum computing and quantum precision measurement, are increasingly desired in compact and stable form. Particularly, the six-beam 3D-MOT, distinguished by symmetric geometry and superior trapping performance, finds particularly broad applications. Conventional implementations, however, rely on complex and bulky free-space optics, hindering miniaturization, practical assembly, and long-term stability. Here, we demonstrate a compact six-beam 3D-MOT system that employs two multifunctional optical metasurface chips to implement the optical-field functionalities required for cooling and trapping atoms. By combining two metasurface chips and a vacuum cell, a photonic-integrated cell module (PICM) is implemented as the core assembly and the volume is only" 73*73*107 mm^3" . In success, 1.3 * 10^3 Rb atoms are trapped and cooled to the temperature of ~183 μK. It should be noticed that the laser beam is guided to the metasurface through optical fiber, thus such fully fiber-coupled architecture enables straightforward and stable operations. We believe that this work would pave a practical route toward compact and portable 3D-MOT.