High-Q photonic device for trapping and detecting a single atom on a chip

Recent progress in manufacturing high-Q dielectric microresonant structures may enable their use as photonic devices that can manipulate and/or detect single atoms on a nanometer scale. Of specific interest is the wafer-based manufacturing of resonators where good control of the physical characteristics can be achieved during fabrication and operation when integrated with other functions on the chip. We show that this "all-optical" trapping should be stable. We discuss atom detection efficiencies and the feasibility for non-destructive measurements in such systems and their dependence on key parameters such as atom distance from the surface, intensity of red- and blue-detuned laser pump fields, and disk size.