Merging Mems Vapor Cells with Metasurfaces for Next-Gen Chip-Scale Atomic Clocks

This paper presents the development of a MEMS-based reflection-type vapor cell combined with metasurfaces, which function as essential optical components for a microfabricated atomic clock. The metasurface achieves a relative diffraction efficiency of 82.3% and converts linear to circular polarization with a degree of circular polarization (DoCP) of -0.957. Following the successful bonding of the metasurfaces to the anisotropically etched silicon substrate, the demonstration of light reflection through the cavity was conclusively achieved. Furthermore, the vapor cell achieved an overall thickness of 1.055 mm, making it highly suitable for integration into mobile devices and opening avenues for diverse applications in the field of miniaturized atomic clocks and quantum sensors.