MEMS-Based Optical Beam Steering System for Multi-Color 2D Spot Arrays

Optically addressing a large number of atoms trapped in a periodic lattice would be a critical missing technology necessary to achieve scalable quantum computation. A micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) based beam steering optical system is proposed to meet the needs of this topic. The system utilizes (a set of) tilting mirrors to create reconfigurable spots on a target of square lattice. The system can provide multi-color, polarization independent, nearly diffraction limited optical system without any frequency shift on the laser beams. We propose to build a Phase I prototype capable of directing the input laser beam to a 5x5 array of spots. Other research activities to demonstrate the long-term feasibility of this approach include high speed mirror development, MEMS mirrors with high power handling capability, and scalable optical design to achieve a 100x100 array of spots.