Laser trapping of atoms and cavity quantum electrodynamics in fibre-tip microcavities

Thesis

Constructing a quantum network comprising of matter-based stationary qubits and photonic flying qubits is a key goal towards scalable quantum computing. Individually trapped neutral atoms are amongst the most promising candidates for stationary qubits, while single photons emitted from optical cavities appears to be the best approach to forming flying qubits. This thesis presents a fast and versatile method to trap and transport an array of neutral atoms, with the aid of a spatial light modulator (SLM). We demonstrate trapped ⁸⁷Rb atoms adapting to the arbitrary and dynamic potential landscapes imposed by the SLM. On top of this we also investigate the inclusion of fibre-tip cavities into the experiment. In these microcavities, the mirrors are replaced by ablated fibre-tip faces, coated in a highly reflective dielectric stack. These have the benefit of small geometries, increasing their scalability; which in turns leads to extremely small mode volumes, allowing for strong coupling with atoms inside the cavity modes. We construct and characterise a high finesse ℱ = 120, 000 fibre-tip cavity constructed from two single mode fibres.

Authors: Dong, J

• Publication date: 2014
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zgv2gz8aq
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English