A photonic integrated comb engine for ultracold quantum gases

Abstract

Cold atoms underpin quantum sensing, simulation and computation, but their coherent control demands highly stable optical fields whose generation, referencing and power scaling remain formidable integration challenges. While photonic integrated circuits have yielded compact visible lasers and high-Q microresonators have enabled chip-scale optical frequency combs, these crucial technologies have largely remained functionally fragmented. Consequently, the coherent manipulation of ultracold quantum gases using a fully integrated laser-comb source has yet to be realized. Here we demonstrate a scalable, hybrid-integrated microcomb engine at 780 nm that seamlessly bridges frequency synthesis, atomic referencing and power amplification to achieve quantum state control of a Bose--Einstein condensate. By self-injection locking of electrically driven III--V lasers to high-Q Si₃N₄ microresonators, we generate coherent platicon microcombs featuring 20- and 100-GHz mode spacings. Absolute referencing of the microcomb to an ⁸⁵Rb transition actively suppresses long-term frequency drift from over 200 MHz to the 100-kHz level across 2,000 s. A selected comb tooth is subsequently injection-amplified to 102 mW, entirely preserving the microcomb's pristine coherence and stability. We utilize this synthesized field to construct an optical lattice, drive coherent two-photon Raman transitions, and prepare stationary spin--orbit-coupled and Raman-lattice states within an ⁸⁷Rb condensate. By providing a synchronized optical grid, this atom-referenced microcomb can allow multiple optical-control channels to scale without a proportional multiplication of independent frequency references. Our work establishes a fully integrated frequency-synthesis architecture essential for realizing deployable, large-scale atomic quantum systems.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{sun2026photonic,
  title = {{A photonic integrated comb engine for ultracold quantum gases}},
  author = {Wei Sun and Xiaoying Yan and Jinbao Long and Sanli Huang and Zhixin Duan and Hao Tan and Zhenyuan Shang and Zeying Zhong and Jiahao Sun and Yue Hu and Shichang Li and Baoqi Shi and Yi-Han Luo and Shuyi Li and Chen Shen and Hanqing Liu and Xiangbin Su and Haiqiao Ni and Zhichuan Niu and Shengjun Yang and Junqiu Liu},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.28294},
  eprint = {2609.28294},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28294},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - A photonic integrated comb engine for ultracold quantum gases
AU  - Wei Sun
AU  - Xiaoying Yan
AU  - Jinbao Long
AU  - Sanli Huang
AU  - Zhixin Duan
AU  - Hao Tan
AU  - Zhenyuan Shang
AU  - Zeying Zhong
AU  - Jiahao Sun
AU  - Yue Hu
AU  - Shichang Li
AU  - Baoqi Shi
AU  - Yi-Han Luo
AU  - Shuyi Li
AU  - Chen Shen
AU  - Hanqing Liu
AU  - Xiangbin Su
AU  - Haiqiao Ni
AU  - Zhichuan Niu
AU  - Shengjun Yang
AU  - Junqiu Liu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/06
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.28294
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28294
AB  - Cold atoms underpin quantum sensing, simulation and computation, but their coherent control demands highly stable optical fields whose generation, referencing and power scaling remain formidable integration challenges. While photonic integrated circuits have yielded compact visible lasers and high-Q microresonators have enabled chip-scale optical frequency combs, these crucial technologies have largely remained functionally fragmented. Consequently, the coherent manipulation of ultracold quantum gases using a fully integrated laser-comb source has yet to be realized. Here we demonstrate a scalable, hybrid-integrated microcomb engine at 780 nm that seamlessly bridges frequency synthesis, atomic referencing and power amplification to achieve quantum state control of a Bose--Einstein condensate. By self-injection locking of electrically driven III--V lasers to high-Q Si_3N_4 microresonators, we generate coherent platicon microcombs featuring 20- and 100-GHz mode spacings. Absolute referencing of the microcomb to an ^85Rb transition actively suppresses long-term frequency drift from over 200 MHz to the 100-kHz level across 2,000 s. A selected comb tooth is subsequently injection-amplified to 102 mW, entirely preserving the microcomb's pristine coherence and stability. We utilize this synthesized field to construct an optical lattice, drive coherent two-photon Raman transitions, and prepare stationary spin--orbit-coupled and Raman-lattice states within an ^87Rb condensate. By providing a synchronized optical grid, this atom-referenced microcomb can allow multiple optical-control channels to scale without a proportional multiplication of independent frequency references. Our work establishes a fully integrated frequency-synthesis architecture essential for realizing deployable, large-scale atomic quantum systems.
ER  -

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