科学家首次实现芯片上的原子光谱分析
发布: 2007-6-02 09:23 | 作者: sally208 | 来源: 化学吧 - 化学论坛 - 学术论坛
SANTA CRUZ, CA--Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have performed atomic spectroscopy with integrated optics on a chip for the first time, guiding a beam of light through a rubidium vapor cell integrated into a semiconductor chip.
Atomic spectroscopy is a widely used technique with diverse applications. Based on the interactions of light and matter, spectroscopy is often used to identify substances by the wavelengths of light they absorb or emit. Conventional systems have many large components, whereas the compact, fully planar device developed at UCSC enables the study of atoms and molecules on a chip-based platform with integrated optics, said Holger Schmidt, associate professor of electrical engineering.
Schmidt's group and his collaborators at Brigham Young University described the first monolithically integrated, planar rubidium cell on a chip in a paper published in the June issue of Nature Photonics. The first author of the paper is Wenge Yang, a postdoctoral researcher in Schmidt's lab at UCSC's Baskin School of Engineering.
According to Schmidt, potential applications for this technology include frequency stabilization for lasers, gas detection sensors, and quantum information processing.
"To stabilize lasers, people use precision spectroscopy with bulk rubidium vapor cells. We could build a little integrated frequency stabilization chip that would do that more easily than a conventional frequency stabilization circuit," Schmidt said.
That project is already under way in Schmidt's lab. Other applications, such as quantum information processing, are more long-term goals, he said.
The key to the group's achievement is their development of hollow-core optical waveguides based on antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) principles. In previous publications, Schmidt and his collaborators have described other uses of ARROW waveguides integrated into chips using standard silicon fabrication technology (see earlier press release at http://press.ucsc.edu/text.asp?pid=578).
To perform atomic spectroscopy, the researchers incorporated rubidium reservoirs into a chip, connecting the reservoirs to hollow-core waveguides so that the optical beam path is filled with rubidium atoms. The resulting vapor cell is completely self-contained and has an active cell volume about 80 million times smaller than a conventional cell, Schmidt said.
"We used rubidium as a proof of principle, but this technique is applicable to any gaseous medium. So it has potentially far-reaching implications," Schmidt said.
In addition to its use in laser frequency stabilization, rubidium vapor is widely used in quantum optics experiments and has been used to slow the speed of light.
"Fundamental concepts in quantum information processing have been demonstrated in principle using bulk rubidium systems. To be practical you can't have big optical tables in all the places you would want to use it, but now we can make this technology more compact and portable," Schmidt said.
###
In addition to Schmidt, the coauthors of the Nature Photonics article include Donald Conkey and Aaron Hawkins of Brigham Young University, as well as UCSC graduate student Bin Wu and postdoctoral researcher Dongliang Yin. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Slow Light Program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
[ 本帖最后由 sally208 于 2007-6-5 08:51 编辑 ]
Atomic spectroscopy is a widely used technique with diverse applications. Based on the interactions of light and matter, spectroscopy is often used to identify substances by the wavelengths of light they absorb or emit. Conventional systems have many large components, whereas the compact, fully planar device developed at UCSC enables the study of atoms and molecules on a chip-based platform with integrated optics, said Holger Schmidt, associate professor of electrical engineering.
Schmidt's group and his collaborators at Brigham Young University described the first monolithically integrated, planar rubidium cell on a chip in a paper published in the June issue of Nature Photonics. The first author of the paper is Wenge Yang, a postdoctoral researcher in Schmidt's lab at UCSC's Baskin School of Engineering.
According to Schmidt, potential applications for this technology include frequency stabilization for lasers, gas detection sensors, and quantum information processing.
"To stabilize lasers, people use precision spectroscopy with bulk rubidium vapor cells. We could build a little integrated frequency stabilization chip that would do that more easily than a conventional frequency stabilization circuit," Schmidt said.
That project is already under way in Schmidt's lab. Other applications, such as quantum information processing, are more long-term goals, he said.
The key to the group's achievement is their development of hollow-core optical waveguides based on antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) principles. In previous publications, Schmidt and his collaborators have described other uses of ARROW waveguides integrated into chips using standard silicon fabrication technology (see earlier press release at http://press.ucsc.edu/text.asp?pid=578).
To perform atomic spectroscopy, the researchers incorporated rubidium reservoirs into a chip, connecting the reservoirs to hollow-core waveguides so that the optical beam path is filled with rubidium atoms. The resulting vapor cell is completely self-contained and has an active cell volume about 80 million times smaller than a conventional cell, Schmidt said.
"We used rubidium as a proof of principle, but this technique is applicable to any gaseous medium. So it has potentially far-reaching implications," Schmidt said.
In addition to its use in laser frequency stabilization, rubidium vapor is widely used in quantum optics experiments and has been used to slow the speed of light.
"Fundamental concepts in quantum information processing have been demonstrated in principle using bulk rubidium systems. To be practical you can't have big optical tables in all the places you would want to use it, but now we can make this technology more compact and portable," Schmidt said.
###
In addition to Schmidt, the coauthors of the Nature Photonics article include Donald Conkey and Aaron Hawkins of Brigham Young University, as well as UCSC graduate student Bin Wu and postdoctoral researcher Dongliang Yin. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Slow Light Program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
[ 本帖最后由 sally208 于 2007-6-5 08:51 编辑 ]
原子光谱是一种用途非常广泛的技术，利用光和物质间相互作用，原子光谱常常通过物质吸收或放出光的波长来辨别它们。UCSC电子工程副教授Holger Schmidt表示，传统原子光谱系统包含很多大型组分，而UCSC小组发明的集成、平坦装置使得芯片平台上的集成电路中原子和分子分析变得可能。
在发表于6月份的《Nature Photonics》上的文章中，Schmidt小组以及他Brigham Young大学的同事描述了这种芯片上的平坦的铷单片电路结构。文章第一作者是Baskin工程学院的博士后Wenge Yang。
Schmidt认为，这一技术可望应用于激光的频率稳定、气体探测感应器以及量子信息处理过程等。他说：“为了稳定激光，需要大型的铷蒸汽室。而我们的方法可以更简单的做到这一点。”
为了实现原子光谱，科学家将一个铷储存库结合到芯片上，再将这一储存库结合到一个中空的波导上，因此光线传导的路径上就充满了铷原子。Schmidt表示这使得活性区域的体积比传统的气室小8000万倍。他说：“我们使用铷来进行验证，但是其它任何气体介质都是可用的。”
除了用于激光频率稳定外，铷蒸汽还广泛用于量子光学实验以及降低光速等。Schmidt表示：“量子信息过程的基本概念已经通过大型铷体系得到了验证，但是如果需要实际使用的话，就需要小型集成的便携设备。”
来源:http://www.cutech.edu.cn/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=21477 中国科学技术信息研究所加工整理