Geometrically asymmetric optical cavity for strong atom-photon coupling

Optical cavities are widely used to enhance the interaction between atoms and light. Typical designs using a geometrically symmetric structure in the near-concentric regime face a tradeoff between mechanical stability and high single-atom cooperativity. To overcome this limitation, we design and implement a geometrically asymmetric standing-wave cavity. This structure, with mirrors of very different radii of curvature, allows strong atom-light coupling while exhibiting good stability against misalignment. We observe effective cooperativities ranging from eta(eff) = 10 to eta(eff) = 0.2 by shifting the location of the atoms in the cavity mode. By loading Yb-171 atoms directly from a mirror magneto-optical trap into a one-dimensional optical lattice along the cavity mode, we produce atomic ensembles with collective cooperativities up to N eta = 2 x 10(4). This system opens a way to preparing spin squeezing for an optical lattice clock and to accessing a range of nonclassical collective states.