Photonics Building Blocks in Alumina for Controlling Trapped Ions

Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits (PIC) can be exploited to control trapped ions more robustly than free-space optics. Most of the work done in this area used silicon nitride (Si3N4), however, it is incompatible with UV wavelengths. Instead, aluminium oxide (Al2O3) proves to be a suitable waveguide material. This project focuses on designing and optimizing several integrated optics structures using alumina.

To improve the transmission of a bend, a partial Euler bend can be implemented. Incorporating a portion of a Euler spiral decreases the connection loss thanks to its linearly varying curvature. However, it also increases the bending loss due to the decreased minimum radius of curvature. Consequently, optimization becomes critical to strike the right balance between these aspects. Another crucial component for PICs is the power splitter. In this work, it has been implemented using a directional coupler since it offers flexibility in designing arbitrary splitting ratios.

References

• Thesis
• https://opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-27-22-31394&id=422321
• https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8865117