Interfacing thermal atoms with integrated photonic waveguides

Atomic vapor cells are employed in a variety of technological applications ranging from atomic clocks to magnetometers, as well as in fundamental research experiments. Interfacing atomic vapor at room temperature with integrated photonic structures enables the realization of miniaturized spectroscopy based devices with light sources, modulators, waveguide interconnections and detectors on a single platform. In the present work, we study this hybrid approach both experimentally and theoretically. We examine the interplay of thermal rubidium atoms with several types of silicon nitride photonic circuits, such as ridge waveguides, Mach-Zehnder interferometers, ring resonators and slot waveguides. Besides investigating the characteristics and results for the individual devices, we take a close look at the peculiarities which arise in this system and discuss the potential of this approach in the context of cavity quantum electrodynamics.