Photonic crystal optical waveguides for on-chip Bose-Einstein condensates

TL;DR

This paper introduces an on-chip photonic crystal waveguide design that uses surface states to trap Bose-Einstein condensates at micron-scale distances, enabling low-power atomic confinement.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to confine Bose-Einstein condensates using tailored photonic crystal surface states for enhanced control and reduced power consumption.

Findings

Surface states can be engineered to extend atom confinement distances.

The proposed waveguide design achieves 2D trapping at 1μm with only 0.1mW power.

Numerical simulations confirm effective atomic confinement using the method.

Abstract

We propose an on-chip optical waveguide for Bose-Einstein condensates based on the evanescent light fields created by surface states of a photonic crystal. It is shown that the modal properties of these surface states can be tailored to confine the condensate at distances from the chip surface significantly longer that those that can be reached by using conventional index-contrast guidance. We numerically demonstrate that by index-guiding the surface states through two parallel waveguides, the atomic cloud can be confined in a two-dimensional trap at about 1$\mu$m above the structure using a power of 0.1mW.