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Suspended waveguides on membrane and needle structures towards photonic atom trap integrated platforms

Jongmin Lee

Published May 1, 2025• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

An atom trap integrated platform (ATIP) comprises a substrate, a membrane, and a suspended waveguide. The substrate has an opening formed therein. The membrane extends across a portion of the substrate opening. The suspended waveguide is formed on the membrane such that the suspended waveguide extends from a first edge of the substrate to a second edge. A magneto-optical trap (MOT) is formed around the suspended waveguide by emitting a plurality of cooling beams and a repump through the substrate opening. Evanescent fields are established above the suspended waveguide by coupling two trapping beams through the suspended waveguide, which trapping beams are red-detuned and blue-detuned with respect to the resonant optical transition of the atoms. By forming the MOT within the evanescent fields, an evanescent field optical trap (EFOT) is formed.

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An atom trap integrated platform (ATIP) comprises a substrate, a membrane, and a suspended waveguide. The substrate has an opening formed therein. The membrane extends across a portion of the substrate opening. The suspended waveguide is formed on the membrane such that the suspended waveguide extends from a first edge of the substrate to a second edge. A magneto-optical trap (MOT) is formed around the suspended waveguide by emitting a plurality of cooling beams and a repump through the substrate opening. Evanescent fields are established above the suspended waveguide by coupling two trapping beams through the suspended waveguide, which trapping beams are red-detuned and blue-detuned with respect to the resonant optical transition of the atoms. By forming the MOT within the evanescent fields, an evanescent field optical trap (EFOT) is formed.
We demonstrate an optical waveguide device, capable of supporting the high, in-vacuum, optical power necessary for trapping a single atom or a cold atom ensemble with evanescent fields. Our photonic integrated platform, with suspended membrane waveguides, successfully manages optical powers of 6 mW (500 μm span) to nearly 30 mW (125 μm span) over an un-tethered waveguide span. This platform is compatible with laser cooling and magneto-optical traps (MOTs) in the vicinity of the suspended waveguide, called the membrane MOT and the needle MOT, a key ingredient for efficient trap loading. We evaluate two novel designs that explore critical thermal management features that enable this large power handling. This work represents a significant step toward an integrated platform for coupling neutral atom quantum systems to photonic and electronic integrated circuits on silicon.
We demonstrate the generation of a cold-atom ensemble within a sub-millimeter diameter hole in a transparent membrane, a so-called "membrane MOT". With a sub-Doppler cooling process, the atoms trapped by the membrane MOT are cooled down to 10 [Formula: see text]K. The atom number inside the unbridged/bridged membrane hole is about [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text], and the [Formula: see text]-diameter of the MOT cloud is about 180 [Formula: see text]m for a 400 [Formula: see text]m-diameter membrane hole. Such a membrane device can, in principle, efficiently load cold atoms into the evanescent-field optical trap generated by the suspended membrane waveguide for strong atom-light interaction and provide the capability of sufficient heat dissipation at the waveguide. This represents a key step toward the photonic atom trap integrated platform (ATIP).
Integrated optical structures offer the intriguing potential of compact, reproducible waveguide arrays, rings, Y junctions, etc., that could be used to design evanescent field traps to transport, store, and interact atoms in networks as complicated as any integrated optical waveguide circuit. We theoretically investigate three approaches to trapping atoms above linear integrated optical waveguides. A two-color scheme balances the decaying evanescent fields of red- and blue-detuned light to produce a potential minimum above the guide. A one-color surface trap proposal uses blue-detuned light and the attractive surface interaction to provide a potential minimum. A third proposal uses blue-detuned light in two guides positioned above and below one another. The atoms are confined to the ``dark'' spot in the vacuum gap between the guides. We find that all three approaches can be used to trap atoms in two or three dimensions with approximately 100 mW of laser power. We show that the dark spot guide is robust to light scatter and provides the most viable approach for constructing integrated optical circuits that could be used to transport and manipulate atoms in a controlled manner.
We theoretically investigate three approaches to trapping atoms above linear integrated optical waveguides. A two- color scheme balances the decaying evanescent elds of red- and blue-detuned light to produce a potential minimum above the guide. A one-color surface trap proposal uses blue-detuned light and the attractive surface interaction to provide a potential minimum. A third proposal uses blue-detuned light in two guides positioned above and below one another. The atoms are con ned to the \dark" spot in the vacuum gap between the guides. We nd that all three approaches can be used in principle to trap atoms in two- or three-dimensions with a few 10's of mW of laser power. Of these three methods, we show that the dark spot guide is the most robust to power fluctuations and provides the most viable design approach to constructing integrated optical circuits that could transport and manipulate atoms in a controlled manner.