We demonstrate a tuneable, chip-scale wavelength reference to greatly reduce the complexity and volume of cold-atom sensors. A 1 mm optical path length micro-fabricated cell provides an atomic wavelength reference, with dynamic frequency control enabled by Zeeman shifting the atomic transition through the magnetic field generated by the printed circuit board (PCB) coils. The dynamic range of the laser frequency stabilization system is evaluated and used in conjunction with an improved generation of chip-scale cold atom platforms that traps 4 million 87Rb atoms. The scalability and component consolidation provide a key step forward in the miniaturization of cold atom sensors.
We demonstrate a simple stacked scheme that enables absorption imaging through a hole in the surface of a grating magneto-optical trap (GMOT) chip, placed immediately below a micro-fabricated vacuum cell. The imaging scheme is capable of overcoming the reduced optical access and surface scatter that is associated with this chip-scale platform, while further permitting both trapping and imaging of the atoms from a single incident laser beam. The through-hole imaging is used to characterise the impact of the reduced optical overlap volume of the GMOT in the chip-scale cell, with an outlook to an…
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 the 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-customi…
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 pres…
We describe the application of displaced, or misaligned, beams in a mirror-based magneto-optical trap (MOT) to enable portable and miniaturized atom chip experiments, where optical access is limited to a single window. Two different geometries of beam displacement are investigated: a variation on the well-known 'vortex-MOT', and the other a novel 'hybrid-MOT' combining Zeeman-shifted and purely optical scattering force components. The beam geometry is obtained similar to the mirror-MOT, using a planar mirror surface but with a different magnetic field geometry more suited to planar systems. Us…
Strontium ${}^{1}S_{0}\!\rightarrow\!{}^{1}P_{1}$ transition frequency measurements assisted by a photonic grating chip
Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science（韩国计量科学研究院）；Graduate School of Quantum Science and Technology, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology（韩国科学技术院量子科学与技术研究生院）；Center for Next-Generation Platform Development, National NanoFab Center (NNFC)（国家纳米制造中心下一代平台开发中心）
In recent years, cold atoms could prove their scientific impact not only on ground but in microgravity environments such as the drop tower in Bremen, sounding rockets and parabolic flights. We investigate the preparation of cold atoms in an optical dipole trap, with an emphasis on evaporative cooling under microgravity. Up to $ 1\times10^{6} $ rubidium-87 atoms were optically trapped from a temporarily dark magneto optical trap during free fall in the droptower in Bremen. The efficiency of evaporation is determined to be equal with and without the effect of gravity. This is confirmed using num…
Metastable (1s)(2s) $^3{\rm S}_1$ helium atoms produced in a supersonic beam were excited to Rydberg-Stark states (with $n$ in the $27-30$ range) in a cryogenic environment and subsequently decelerated by, and trapped above, a surface-electrode decelerator. In the trapping experiments, the Rydberg atoms were brought to rest in 75~$μ$s and over a distance of 33~mm and kept stationary for times $t_{\mathrm{trap}}$ in the $0-525$~$μ$s range, before being re-accelerated for detection by pulsed field ionization. The use of a home-built valve producing short gas pulses with a duration of about 20~$μ…
High-power and narrow-linewidth laser light is a vital tool for atomic physics, being used for example in laser cooling and trapping and precision spectroscopy. Here we produce Watt-level laser radiation at 457.49 nm and 460.86 nm of respective relevance for the cooling transitions of cadmium and strontium atoms. This is achieved via the frequency doubling of a kHz-linewidth vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL), which is based on a novel gain chip design enabling lasing at > 2 W in the 915-928 nm region. Following an additional doubling stage, spectroscopy of the $^1S_0\to{…
We report observation of sub-Doppler cooling of lithium using an irregular-tetrahedral laser beam arrangement, which is produced by a nanofabricated diffraction grating. We are able to capture 11(2) % of the lithium atoms from a grating magneto-optical trap into $Λ$-enhanced $D_1$ gray molasses. The molasses cools the captured atoms to a radial temperature of 60(9) $μ$K and an axial temperature of 23(3) $μ$K. In contrast to results from conventional counterpropagating beam configurations, we do not observe cooling when our optical fields are detuned from Raman resonance. An optical Bloch equat…
We demonstrate a compact (0.25 L) system for laser cooling and trapping atoms from a heated dispenser source. Our system uses a nanofabricated diffraction grating to generate a magneto-optical trap (MOT) using a single input laser beam. An aperture in the grating allows atoms from the dispenser to be loaded from behind the chip, increasing the interaction distance of atoms with the cooling light. To take full advantage of this increased distance, we extend the magnetic field gradient of the MOT to create a Zeeman slower. The MOT traps approximately $10^6$ $^7$Li atoms emitted from an effusive …
A scalable chip-integrated single-photon source array based on 50 individually addressable neutral atoms
University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics（中国科学院量子信息与量子物理学前沿卓越中心）；Laboratory of Quantum Information（量子信息实验室）
Monolithic integration of control technologies for atomic systems is a promising route to the development of quantum computers and portable quantum sensors. Trapped atomic ions form the basis of high-fidelity quantum information processors and high-accuracy optical clocks. However, current implementations rely on free-space optics for ion control, which limits their portability and scalability. Here we demonstrate a surface-electrode ion-trap chip using integrated waveguides and grating couplers, which delivers all the wavelengths of light required for ionization, cooling, coherent operations,…
