Coherent interface between optical and microwave photons on an integrated superconducting atom chip

Abstract

Sub-wavelength arrays of atoms exhibit remarkable optical properties, analogous to those of phased array antennas, such as collimated directional emission or nearly perfect reflection of light near the collective resonance frequency. We propose to use a single-sheet sub-wavelength array of atoms as a switchable mirror to achieve a coherent interface between propagating optical photons and microwave photons in a superconducting coplanar waveguide resonator. In the proposed setup, the atomic array is located near the surface of the integrated superconducting chip containing the microwave cavity and optical waveguide. A driving laser couples the excited atomic state to Rydberg states with strong microwave transition. Then the presence or absence of a microwave photon in the superconducting cavity makes the atomic array transparent or reflective to the incoming optical pulses of proper frequency and finite bandwidth.

Perspective on new implementations of atomtronic circuits

“…The general idea is that in a schematic information processing protocol, gate operations and state preparations can be carried out in the fast solid-state apparatus; then transferred and stored in atomic systems that are less prone to decoherence and finally transferred back to solid-state devices for further processing. Some use cases for such technology can be found in quantum memories [348][349][350], trapping [351], frequency converters [352][353][354] and novel quantum gates [355][356][357][358]. Different superconducting setups have been proposed, including the use of disks [359], films [360], wires [361] and rings [362].…”