Nanofiber Ring Resonator

Implementing future photonic information and communication architectures require precise control on the flow of light in integrated optical devices. When this control reaches the level of the fundamental quantum processes such as the absorption and emission of single photons, this enables one then to introduce quantum features into future applications. Devices that provide this fundamental quantum control are so-called lightmatter quantum interfaces. Their realization in an efficient and scalable fashion promises to introduce quantum technologies into the modern information age. The goal of this project is to realize a novel physical platform that provides an efficient and fully fiber- integrated quantum interface. The key element is a new type of optical resonator: A fiber ring resonator that contains an optical nanofiber part, i.e. an optical fiber with a diameter of a few 100 nanometer smaller than the wavelength of the guided light. In this nanofiber section, a large amount of the light travels outside the fiber as evanescent field. Nonetheless, the light propagation is essentially loss-less. At the same time, we can efficiently couple large number of trapped atoms to the evanescent field of the nanofiber part. In this way, we will realize a quantum interface that has small photon losses and, at the same time, very large light-matter interaction strengths. This allows us to realize and investigate in detail novel physical situations that so far could not be demonstrated such as the so-called regime of multimode strong light-matter coupling. Another goal of the project is to realize a new experimental platform for quantum information processing. For this purpose, we will combine our resonator with an atom-chip a chip-integrated platform for the cooling and manipulation of atoms. In this combined system the resonator mediates long-distance interactions between ultra-cold atoms provided by the atom-chip. This is the key ingredient that we will use for implementing an integrated hybrid quantum computer. Establishing this novel experimental platform for quantum information processing will pave the way towards realizing next-generation computers and will ensure the continuing success story of the modern information age.

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