Evolutionary algorithm to design high-cooperativity optical cavities

Abstract: Using an evolutionary algorithm combined with a gradient descent method we design optical cavities with significantly enhanced strong coupling rates between cavity photons and a single quantum emitter. Our approach allows us to find specially designed non-spherical mirrors which lead to high-finesse cavity eigenmodes with large field enhancement at the center of the cavity. The method is based on adding consecutive perturbations to an initial spherical mirror shape using the gradient descent method for optimization. We present mirror profiles suitable for fabrication which demonstrate higher cavity cooperativity than any spherical cavity of the same size. Finally, we demonstrate numerically how such a cavity enhances the operation frequency and purity of coupling a Ca$^+$ ion to an optical fiber photon.