Abstract:
Alkali metal atomic vapor cell is the core component of quantum sensors, such as atomic clocks, atomic magnetometers, and atomic gyroscopes, which play an important role in quantum precision measurement and aerospace fields. Among them, atomic clocks based on Coherent Population Trapping(CPT) principle, compared with traditional microwave clocks, are an important development direction for atomic clock miniaturization due to their small size, low power consumption, and ease of integration, as the physical part does not require a microwave resonant cavity. Using micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology to achieve on-chip miniaturized vapor cells is an important direction for the development of atomic vapor cells. In order to achieve miniaturization of atomic vapor cells while increasing the optical path length, a glass-silicon-glass three-layer structure with two chambers is designed. A 3 mm thick silicon chip with two chambers and a micro-channel was processed using laser cutting technology, and a chip-level MEMS rubidium atomic vapor cell containing 7 kPa N
2 as buffer gas was fabricated using anodic bonding technology and high power laser releasing method. The size of a single atomic vapor cell is 6 mm×6 mm×5 mm, and the optical path length is 3 mm. Through baking accelerated aging tests on an atomic vapor cell with a size of 10 mm× 10 mm× 5 mm, it can be observed that rubidium atoms are not significantly lost during the baking process, and there is a significant quantity of residual rubidium atoms after being left at room temperature for six months. Using helium mass spectrometry leak detection, the bonding interface leakage rate is not higher than 5×10
−10 Pa·m
3·s
−1. Through optical experimental platform testing, four different absorption spectra of
85Rb and
87Rb can be measured, demonstrating the feasibility of this fabrication method and the possibility of wafer processing.