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Applied Physics Letters

Silicon nitride-based photonic integrated circuit to control a cold atom source

H. Snijders, Soizic Hello, B. Wirtschafter, Gilles A. Feugnet, L. A. Tran, M. M. Zafar, Ronald Dekker, Christoph Ira Westbrook, A. Brignon, Matthieu Dupont-Nivet

Published Dec 1, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1063/5.0294192

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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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Nature Communications•Sep 16, 2026•0 citations
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.
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.
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.
Abstract Programmability and precise control of laser frequency are essential for quantum experiments and applications such as atomic clocks, quantum computers, and cold-atom sensors. Current systems use bulky, power-hungry modulators and frequency shifters which are difficult to integrate and limit portability and scalability. We report an electrically controllable, agile optical frequency source based on a semiconductor laser stabilized to a photonic integrated resonator cavity with a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) actuator. We demonstrate this approach with precision programmable frequency control of a 780-nm laser that can periodically reference to rubidium-87 ( 87 Rb) spectroscopy followed by fast, programmable, arbitrary frequency tuning sequences for quantum control. We use this approach to demonstrate sub-Doppler cooling of 87 Rb without any external modulators, achieving atom-cloud temperatures as low as 16 μ K. The device achieves a tuning strength up to 1 GHz/V with 11 MHz modulation bandwidth while consuming only 10 nW of electrical power. This work establishes a route toward compact, low-power, and chip-scale laser systems for next-generation quantum and atomic sensing technologies.