Fabrication of Glass Micro-Cavities for Cavity QED Experiments

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel fabrication process for high-quality, defect-free glass micro-cavities with ultra-smooth surfaces, suitable for quantum optics and cavity QED experiments, enabling improved atom-photon interactions.

Contribution

A new fabrication method using controlled glass reflow and pressure to produce customizable, high-finesse micro-mirrors with ultra-smooth surfaces for quantum applications.

Findings

Mirrors with 0.3 nm surface roughness achieved.

Cavities suitable for quantum information tasks demonstrated.

Process allows for array fabrication and precise control.

Abstract

We report a process for fabricating high quality, defect-free spherical mirror templates suitable for developing high finesse optical Fabry-Perot resonators. The process utilizes the controlled reflow of borosilicate glass and differential pressure to produce mirrors with 0.3 nanometer surface roughness. The dimensions of the mirrors are in the 0.5-5mm range making them suitable candidates for integration with on-chip neutral atom and ion experiments where enhanced interaction between atoms and photons are required. Moreover the mirror curvature, dimension and placement is readily controlled and the process can easily provide an array of such mirrors. We show that cavities constructed with these mirror templates are well suited to quantum information applications such as single photon sources and atom-photon entanglement.