Advanced mirror shapes for mode enhancement in plano-concave cavities
Advanced mirror shapes for mode enhancement in plano-concave cavities
Optical cavities are frequently used in quantum technologies to enhance light matter interactions, with applications including single photon generation and entanglement of distant emitters. The Fabry-Pérot resonator is a popular choice for its high optical access and large emitter-mirror separation. A typical configuration, particularly for emitters that should not be placed close to the mirror surface like trapped ions and Rydberg atoms, features two spherical mirrors placed around a central emitter, but this arrangement can put demanding requirements on the mirror alignment. In contrast, plano-concave cavities are tolerant to mirror misalignment and only require the manufacture of one curved mirror, but have limited ability to focus light in the centre of the cavity. Here we show how mirror shaping can overcome this limitation of plano-concave cavities while preserving the key advantages. We demonstrate through numerical simulations that simple mirror shaping can increase coupling between a plano-concave cavity and a central emitter by an order of magnitude, even rivalling misalignment-sensitive concave-concave counterparts for achievable interaction strength. We use these observations to establish the conditions under which plano-concave cavities with shaped mirrors could improve the performance and practicality of emitter-cavity systems.
optical resonator, microcavity, Cavity QED, quantum computing
Hughes, William J.
79b1b23d-0485-439e-a173-27d42c7f9910
Horak, Peter
520489b5-ccc7-4d29-bb30-c1e36436ea03
22 April 2026
Hughes, William J.
79b1b23d-0485-439e-a173-27d42c7f9910
Horak, Peter
520489b5-ccc7-4d29-bb30-c1e36436ea03
Hughes, William J. and Horak, Peter
(2026)
Advanced mirror shapes for mode enhancement in plano-concave cavities.
Scientific Reports, 16, [13101].
(doi:10.1038/s41598-026-43741-z).
Abstract
Optical cavities are frequently used in quantum technologies to enhance light matter interactions, with applications including single photon generation and entanglement of distant emitters. The Fabry-Pérot resonator is a popular choice for its high optical access and large emitter-mirror separation. A typical configuration, particularly for emitters that should not be placed close to the mirror surface like trapped ions and Rydberg atoms, features two spherical mirrors placed around a central emitter, but this arrangement can put demanding requirements on the mirror alignment. In contrast, plano-concave cavities are tolerant to mirror misalignment and only require the manufacture of one curved mirror, but have limited ability to focus light in the centre of the cavity. Here we show how mirror shaping can overcome this limitation of plano-concave cavities while preserving the key advantages. We demonstrate through numerical simulations that simple mirror shaping can increase coupling between a plano-concave cavity and a central emitter by an order of magnitude, even rivalling misalignment-sensitive concave-concave counterparts for achievable interaction strength. We use these observations to establish the conditions under which plano-concave cavities with shaped mirrors could improve the performance and practicality of emitter-cavity systems.
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Accepted/In Press date: 6 March 2026
e-pub ahead of print date: 11 March 2026
Published date: 22 April 2026
Keywords:
optical resonator, microcavity, Cavity QED, quantum computing
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 510717
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510717
ISSN: 2045-2322
PURE UUID: 68362c77-cb6f-4544-9890-53ee37276920
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Date deposited: 20 Apr 2026 16:30
Last modified: 23 Apr 2026 02:18
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Author:
William J. Hughes
Author:
Peter Horak
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