Visible and ultraviolet integrated photonics for addressing atomic systems
Name
1126770875-MIT.pdf
Size
8.37 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8686e5c4420dfed6a6fe7dab48e6a303
Author(s)
West, Gavin N.(Gavin Neal)
Advisor(s)
Rajeev J. Ram.
Date Issued
2019
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
In the wake of many technological successes in integrated photonics based on silicon, attention has been given to applications in the visible light regime. This thesis is concerned with furthering the development of integrated photonics for controlling atomic systems, in particular individual trapped atomic ions. Nature places strict constraints on the frequency of the lasers used to address these atoms, typically spanning from the ultraviolet into the near infrared, and on the sensitivity to accidental perturbations from the control hardware. A platform for broadband integrated photonics, using amorphous aluminum oxide as the patterned material, is developed and exhibits suitable performance in the visible and ultraviolet. The waveguide loss and resonator quality factors are the best which have been reported to date, for wavelengths shorter than 500 nm. Next, a theory is developed which proposes laser frequency noise as a limiting factor for the extinction ratio of common integrated modulator designs. Understanding of this limit, and possible methods to suppress its effects, is important due to the fragile nature of single-photon-sensitive quantum systems. Finally, the application of technology developed here is applied to the analysis of trapped-ion-based optical atomic clocks. Justification for such integration of clocks and the impacts that result -- both good and bad -- are discussed from the perspective of a hardware designer.
Description
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2019
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 117-129).
Subjects
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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