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arXiv:1212.3814 · Physical Review A

Electromagnetically-induced-transparency control of single-atom motion in an optical cavity

Tobias Kampschulte, Wolfgang Alt, Sebastian Manz, Miguel Martinez-Dorantes, René Reimann, Seokchan Yoon, Dieter Meschede, Marc Bienert, Giovanna Morigi

Published Mar 4, 2014• 37 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate cooling of the motion of a single neutral atom confined by a dipole trap inside a high-finesse optical resonator. Cooling of the vibrational motion results from electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)--like interference in an atomic $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type configuration, where one transition is strongly coupled to the cavity mode and the other is driven by an external control laser. Good qualitative agreement with the theoretical predictions is found for the explored parameter ranges. Further, we demonstrate EIT cooling of atoms in the dipole trap in free space, reaching the ground state of axial motion. By means of a direct comparison with the cooling inside the resonator, the role of the cavity becomes evident by an additional cooling resonance. These results pave the way towards a controlled interaction among atomic, photonic, and mechanical degrees of freedom.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.89.033404

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We demonstrate cooling of the motion of a single neutral atom confined by a dipole trap inside a high-finesse optical resonator. Cooling of the vibrational motion results from electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)--like interference in an atomic \ensuremathΛ\ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremathΛ-type configuration, where one transition is strongly coupled to the cavity mode and the other is driven by an external control laser. Good qualitative agreement with the theoretical predictions is found for the explored parameter ranges. Further, we demonstrate EIT cooling of atoms in the dipole trap in free space, reaching the ground state of axial motion. By means of a direct comparison with the cooling inside the resonator, the role of the cavity becomes evident by an additional cooling resonance. These results pave the way towards a controlled interaction among atomic, photonic, and mechanical degrees of freedom.
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We theoretically analyze the cooling dynamics of an atom which is tightly trapped inside a high-finesse optical resonator. Cooling is achieved by suitably tailored scattering processes, in which the atomic dipole transition either scatters a cavity photon into the electromagnetic field external to the resonator, or performs a stimulated emission into the cavity mode, which then dissipates via the cavity mirrors. We identify the parameter regimes in which the atom center-of-mass motion can be cooled into the ground state of the external trap. We predict that, in particular, for high cooperativities, interference effects mediated by the atomic transition may lead to higher efficiencies. The dynamics is compared with the cooling dynamics of a trapped atom inside a resonator studied by Zippilli and Morigi [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 143001 (2005)] where the atom, instead of the cavity, is driven by a laser field.
We investigate theoretically the mechanical effects of light on atoms trapped by an external potential, whose dipole transition couples to the mode of an optical resonator and is driven by a laser. We derive an analytical expression for the quantum center-of-mass dynamics, which is valid in presence of a tight external potential. This equation has broad validity and allows for a transparent interpretation of the individual scattering processes leading to cooling. We show that the dynamics is a competition of the mechanical effects of the cavity and of the laser photons, which may mutually interfere. We focus on the good-cavity limit and identify novel cooling schemes, which are based on quantum interference effects and lead to efficient ground-state cooling in experimentally accessible parameter regimes.
We investigate the cooling of trapped atoms by electromagnetically induced transparency under conditions of weak confinement and beyond the Lamb-Dicke limit, i.e., the spontaneous decay width is large compared to the trap oscillation frequency and the recoil energy is a substantial fraction of the vibrational energy spacing of the trap. Numerical solutions of the Liouville equation for a density matrix describing states of vibrational and electronic degrees of freedom show that vibrational cooling is feasible at even substantial values of the Lamb-Dicke parameter and under conditions of weak confinement, a situation where sideband pumping is inefficient. Our approach permits us to predict cooling efficiency and cooling rates under realistic experimental conditions for neutral atoms in optical dipole traps.
We propose a ground-state cavity-mediated cooling scheme for a trapped atom, which is in the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ configuration and confined inside a high-finesse optical cavity, using a standing-wave cooling laser. The carrier transition can be prohibited by placing the atom at the node of the cavity field, and the blue-sideband transition can be simultaneously eliminated by exploiting quantum interference via tuning the frequency of the cooling laser. As a consequence, the ground-state cooling for the trapped atom can be achieved. Moreover, we numerically demonstrate the superiority by placing the atom at the antinode of the standing-wave cooling laser as compared with the running-wave cooling laser, and the robustness of the scheme using the standing-wave laser. Meanwhile, the cooling rate can reach the same order of magnitude as that obtained in the cavity--electromagnetically-induced-transparency cooling scheme, and the explicit expression for the final phonon number in higher order is also presented.
The properties of an optically probed atomic medium can be changed dramatically by coherent interaction with a near-resonant control light field. The authors present experimental results on the elementary case of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with a single neutral atom inside an optical cavity probed by a weak field. The modification of the dispersive and absorptive properties of a single atom by changing the frequency of the control light field in the off-resonant regime is observed.