Integrating planar photonics for multi-beam generation and atomic clock packaging on chip

Published

April 3, 2023

Author(s)

Chad Ropp, Wenqi Zhu, Alexander Yulaev, Daron Westly, Gregory Simelgor, Akash Rakholia, William Lunden, Dan Sheredy, Martin Boyd, Scott Papp, Amit Agrawal, Vladimir Aksyuk

Abstract

The commercialization of atomic technologies requires replacing laboratory-scale laser setups with compact and manufacturable optical platforms. Complex arrangements of free-space beams can be generated on chip through a combination of integrated photonics and metasurface optics. In this work, we combine these two technologies using flip-chip bonding and demonstrate an architecture for packaging a compact strontium atomic clock. Our planar design includes twelve beams in two co-aligned magneto-optical traps. These beams are directed above the chip to intersect at a central location with diameters > 1 mm. Our design also includes two co-propagating beams at lattice and clock wavelengths. These beams emit colinearly and vertically to probe the center of the magneto-optical trap, where they will have diameters of ≈ 100 µm. With these devices we demonstrate that our integrated photonic platform is scalable to an arbitrary number of beams, each with different wavelengths, geometries, and polarizations.

Citation

Light: Science & Applications

Volume

12

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-023-01081-x

Local Download

Keywords

PIC, metasurface, miniature atomic clock, MOT, AMO, atom cooling and trapping, hybrid integration, atomic photonic interface

Citation

Ropp, C. , Zhu, W. , Yulaev, A. , Westly, D. , Simelgor, G. , Rakholia, A. , Lunden, W. , Sheredy, D. , Boyd, M. , Papp, S. , Agrawal, A. and Aksyuk, V. (2023), Integrating planar photonics for multi-beam generation and atomic clock packaging on chip, Light: Science & Applications, [online], https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-023-01081-x, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=935106 (Accessed October 27, 2025)