A millikelvin all-fiber cavity optomechanical apparatus for merging with ultra-cold atoms in a hybrid quantum system

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel all-fiber cavity optomechanical system integrated with ultra-cold atoms inside a cryogenic environment, enabling strong light-matter coupling at millikelvin temperatures for hybrid quantum applications.

Contribution

It introduces an in-situ adjustable all-fiber membrane-in-the-middle cavity within a dilution refrigerator, combining ultra-cold atom production with high-coherence optomechanics.

Findings

Achieved Bose-Einstein condensates of 2 million atoms in under 20 seconds.

Demonstrated a single photon optomechanical coupling strength of 9 kHz.

Maintained a high mechanical quality factor of over 10^7 at 480 mK.

Abstract

We describe the construction of an apparatus designed to realize a hybrid quantum system comprised of a cryogenically cooled mechanical oscillator and ultra-cold $^{87}$Rb atoms coupled via light. The outstanding feature of our instrument is an in-situ adjustable asymmetric all-fiber membrane-in-the-middle cavity located inside an ultra-high vacuum dilution refrigerator based cryostat. We show that Bose-Einstein condensates of $N=2\times10^6$ atoms can be produced in less than 20 s and demonstrate a single photon optomechanical coupling strength of $g_0=2\pi\times9$ kHz employing a high-stress Si$_3$N$_4$ membrane with a mechanical quality factor $Q_{\rm m}>10^7$ at a cavity set-up temperature of $T_{\rm MiM}=480$ mK.