Wafer-scale fabrication of evacuated alkali vapor cells

2024/05/17 by Yang Li, Li, Yang, Donggyu B. Sohn +7
Chemical Engineering · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Analytical Chemistry and Sensors #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Nanowire Synthesis and Applications #Optics (physics.optics) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2405.11088

openalex publication_date 2024/05/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We describe a process for fabricating a wafer-scale array of alkali metal vapor cells with low residual gas pressure. We show that by etching long, thin channels between the cells on the Si wafer surface, the residual gas pressure in the evacuated vapor cell can be reduced to below 0.5 kPa (4 Torr) with a yield above 50 %. The low residual gas pressure in these mass-producible alkali vapor cells can enable a new generation of low-cost chip-scale atomic devices such as vapor cell optical clocks, wavelength references, and Rydberg sensors.

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