Atom-Light Interactions in Integrated Photonics: en Route to an Atomic Lab on a Photonic Chip

The integration of photonic structures with thermal atomic vapors on a chip provides efficient atom-light coupling on a miniaturized scale well beyond the diffraction limit hence, opening a new regime in the field of cavity quantum electrodynamics. In this talk, we present the results of our study on interactions of thermal Rb atoms with integrated SiN and Si Nano-devices. In the former case, the atoms are probed with a laser at the D₂ transition, whereas in latter the atoms are further excited to the 4D states with an additional excitation at telecom wavelength. Our studies on Si structures benefit from stronger mode confinement due to the large reflective index as well as a larger dipole moment. Moreover, we demonstrate novel measurements on the effects of Si surface potentials on Rb 4D states. Promising results on ring resonators pave the way towards further investigations of high-Q photonic crystal cavities in order to reach the strong coupling regime.