QUAN: Integrated photonic-atom chips: surface effects and advanced fabrication

智力优势：我们提出了一个基础广泛的实验研究计划，以促进我们对范德华相互作用最终可能限制光子-原子芯片性能的程度的理解。同时，我们将提高我们制造光子和原子捕获“层”之间高度集成的器件的能力。光子原子芯片是实现可扩展和强大的量子通信网络的技术平台的领先候选者，开发它们的努力汇集了纳米制造、原子物理和光子工程领域的尖端方法学。从长远来看，我们正在启动的研究路线应该有助于更好地理解微扰和强耦合量子电动力学是如何在涉及气相原子和介电微谐振器的研究中结合在一起的。这种类型的研究将是实现纳米技术方法用于量子信息处理的巨大前景的关键。广泛影响：我们将开发的制造技术和我们的表面效应研究结果将与量子信息科学领域以外的研究相关。例如，它们将对开发芯片级传感器(原子钟和原子干涉惯性传感器)的应用工作以及开发原子芯片系统以研究一维或二维量子简并气体的基础研究具有很高的价值。拟议的研究将对研究生的跨学科培训做出重大贡献，他们将从事高度专注于改进制造方法的技术工作，以及更多关于原子冷却和陷阱以及量子电动力学的概念性研究。

Intellectual merit: We propose a broad-based program of experimental research to advance our understanding of the degree to which van der Waals interactions may ultimately limit the performance of photonic-atom chips. At the same time, we will improve our ability to fabricate devices with a high degree of integration between the photonic and atom-trapping "layers." Photonic-atom chips are a leading candidate for a technology platform to enable scalable and robust quantum communication networks, and efforts to develop them have drawn together cutting-edge methodology from the fields of nanofabrication, atomic physics and photonic engineering. In the long run, the line of research we are initiating should lead to an improved understanding of how perturbative and strongly-coupled quantum electrodynamics come together in research involving gas-phase atoms and dielectric microresonators. This type of research will be crucial for realizing the great promise of nanotechnology approaches to quantum information processing.Broader impact: The fabrication techniques we will develop and the results of our surface-effects studies will have relevance for research beyond the field of quantum information science. For example, they will be highly valuable for applied work on the development of chip-scale sensors (atomic clocks and atom-interferometric inertial sensors) and basic research on developing atom-chip systems to study quantum degenerate gases confined to one or two dimensions. The proposed research will contribute significantly to the interdisciplinary training of graduate students, who will engage both in highly focused technical work on improved fabrication methods and in more conceptual research on atom cooling and trapping and quantum electrodynamics.