TY - JOUR
T1 - Silicon microcavity arrays with open access and a finesse of half a million
AU - Wachter, Georg
AU - Kuhn, Stefan
AU - Minniberger, Stefan
AU - Salter, Cameron
AU - Asenbaum, Peter
AU - Millen, James
AU - Schneider, Michael
AU - Schalko, Johannes
AU - Schmid, Ulrich
AU - Felgner, André
AU - Hüser, Dorothee
AU - Arndt, Markus
AU - Trupke, Michael
PY - 2019/4/10
Y1 - 2019/4/10
N2 -
Optical resonators are essential for fundamental science, applications in sensing and metrology, particle cooling, and quantum information processing. Cavities can significantly enhance interactions between light and matter. For many applications they perform this task best if the mode confinement is tight and the photon lifetime is long. Free access to the mode center is important in the design to admit atoms, molecules, nanoparticles, or solids into the light field. Here, we demonstrate how to machine microcavity arrays of extremely high quality in pristine silicon. Etched to an almost perfect parabolic shape with a surface roughness on the level of 2 Å and coated to a finesse exceeding F = 500,000, these new devices can have lengths below 17 µm, confining the photons to 5 µm waists in a mode volume of 88λ
3
. Extending the cavity length to 150 µm, on the order of the radius of curvature, in a symmetric mirror configuration yields a waist smaller than 7 µm, with photon lifetimes exceeding 64 ns. Parallelized cleanroom fabrication delivers an entire microcavity array in a single process. Photolithographic precision furthermore yields alignment structures that result in mechanically robust, pre-aligned, symmetric microcavity arrays, representing a light-matter interface with unprecedented performance.
AB -
Optical resonators are essential for fundamental science, applications in sensing and metrology, particle cooling, and quantum information processing. Cavities can significantly enhance interactions between light and matter. For many applications they perform this task best if the mode confinement is tight and the photon lifetime is long. Free access to the mode center is important in the design to admit atoms, molecules, nanoparticles, or solids into the light field. Here, we demonstrate how to machine microcavity arrays of extremely high quality in pristine silicon. Etched to an almost perfect parabolic shape with a surface roughness on the level of 2 Å and coated to a finesse exceeding F = 500,000, these new devices can have lengths below 17 µm, confining the photons to 5 µm waists in a mode volume of 88λ
3
. Extending the cavity length to 150 µm, on the order of the radius of curvature, in a symmetric mirror configuration yields a waist smaller than 7 µm, with photon lifetimes exceeding 64 ns. Parallelized cleanroom fabrication delivers an entire microcavity array in a single process. Photolithographic precision furthermore yields alignment structures that result in mechanically robust, pre-aligned, symmetric microcavity arrays, representing a light-matter interface with unprecedented performance.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85064225127&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41377-019-0145-y
DO - 10.1038/s41377-019-0145-y
M3 - Letter
AN - SCOPUS:85064225127
SN - 2095-5545
VL - 8
JO - Light: Science and Applications
JF - Light: Science and Applications
IS - 1
M1 - 37
ER -