A scalable chip-integrated single-photon source array based on 50 individually addressable neutral atoms

Abstract

Scalable arrays of identical single-photon sources are a central resource for photonic quantum information processing, quantum networks and quantum metrology. Neutral atoms provide intrinsically identical emitters that can be assembled and rearranged in optical tweezers, but a many-channel fiber interface to individually trapped atoms has remained a major technical challenge. Here we demonstrate a chip-interfaced single-photon source array based on 50 individually addressable $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms. A glass waveguide fan-out converts the \SI{5}{\micro m} pitch of the optical-tweezer array to the \SI{127}{\micro m} pitch of a commercial fiber array, mapping each atom to its own waveguide, fiber and single-photon detector. We resolve all 50 channels with an average nearest-neighbor cross-talk of $0.4\%$ and a uniform insertion loss of \SI{2.9}{dB}, and verify single-photon emission with $g^{(2)}(0)=0.29$, presently limited by detector dark counts and residual cooling-light scattering. Combining per-channel atom discrimination, rearrangement and reservoir replenishment, we prepare source subarrays of up to 24 atoms with a $93\%$ fill fraction. For small target numbers, atom loss is repaired from the reservoir at the detection-limited rate of \SI{118}{Hz}. We further fabricate a 784-channel waveguide chip, showing that the photonic interface can be extended well beyond the present number. This architecture establishes a fiber-native neutral-atom platform for larger arrays of identical single-photon sources.