Photonic MEMS Vacuum Trap For Cold Atoms

该项目旨在开发使用集成光子学捕获原子的全新方法，因此该项目寻求开创针对冷原子的全新科学和技术方法。将半导体激光器与光子腔和MEMS真空室相结合，将允许光捕获和控制原子。这项工作得到了英国量子技术计划和皇家工程院的支持。用光捕捉原子，使原子能够冷却到微开尔文温度以下，从而产生一套最精确的传感器，可用于计时、测量加速度、旋转或重力。被捕获的原子也可以形成量子比特，也被用来建造量子计算机。目前，这种传感器需要配备高功率激光的大型真空室，以捕获数百瓦功率的原子才能运行。该项目旨在将这些原子陷阱微型化，使用类似CD/DVD播放机的二极管激光器，并在MEMS真空系统中结合与原子集成的光学腔，旨在减少尺寸、重量和功率，使这些传感器缩小到手机大小，并由电池供电。

This project aims to develop completely new ways to trap atoms using integrated photonics so the project is looking to pioneer completely new science and technology approaches to cold atoms. Integrating diode laser with photonic cavities and MEMS vacuum chambers will allow the trapping and control of atoms by light. The work is supported by the UK Quantum Technology Programme and the Royal Academy of Engineering. Trapping atoms with light enables atoms to be cooled to below microKelvin temperatures resulting in the most accurate set of sensors that can be used for timing, measuring acceleration, rotation or gravity. Trapped atoms can also form qubits and are also being used to build quantum computers. Such sensors presently require large vacuum chambers with high power lasers to trap atoms with hundreds of Watts of power for operation. This project aims to miniaturize these atom traps using the diode lasers similar to CD/DVD players combined with optical cavities integrated with atoms in MEMS vacuum systems aiming to reduce the size, weight and power to allow these sensors to reduce to the size of a mobile phone and to be powered by batteries.