Optimization of circular cavities via guided-mode expansion method based inverse design

TL;DR

This paper presents a gradient-based inverse design method using guided-mode expansion to optimize circular ring cavities for quantum spin-photon interfaces, achieving high quality factors and robust far-field emission profiles.

Contribution

It introduces a novel inverse-design framework that optimizes cavity geometry for polarization support, high Q-factor, and efficient far-field emission simultaneously.

Findings

Achieved a cavity Q-factor of approximately 9,000, significantly higher than traditional designs.

Designed a cavity with Gaussian-like far-field emission pattern.

Demonstrated robustness of the design against fabrication errors within ±6 nm.

Abstract

Spin-photon interfaces, realized by coupling optically active spin systems to photonic cavities, are essential for quantum networking and quantum information processing. Implementing such an interface for polarization-encoded photons requires a cavity that supports arbitrary polarization, provides efficient optical access through its far-field mode, and maintains sufficiently high quality factors to enable high cooperativity with the system's optical transitions. However, inherent trade-offs between the Q-factor and far-field emission mode make the simultaneous optimization of these parameters toward the realization of spin-photon interfaces challenging. In this work, we implement a gradient-based inverse-design framework using guided-mode expansion with automatic differentiation to obtain the geometrical features of a circular ring cavity that supports arbitrary polarization while simultaneously optimizing the cavity quality factor and far-field mode profile. The resulting optimized non-periodic cavity achieves a quality factor of approximately $9,000$, about an order-of-magnitude higher than that of a periodic ("bullseye") cavity while preserving a Gaussian-like far-field emission pattern. Furthermore, by varying the cavity geometry within a $\pm 6$ nm fabrication tolerance, we demonstrate the robustness of the design against fabrication errors and identify the innermost ring width and central disk radius as the parameters with the greatest impact on the quality factor and far-field mode. These results establish guided mode expansion-based inverse design as a powerful and computationally efficient approach for developing high-cooperativity spin-photon interfaces for quantum photonic applications.