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arXiv:1611.02035 · Applied Physics Letters

All-optical switching in a continuously operated and strongly coupled atom-cavity system

Sourav Dutta, S. A. Rangwala

Published Mar 20, 2017• 16 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate collective strong coupling, optical bi-stability (OB), and all-optical switching in a system consisting of ultracold 85Rb atoms, trapped in a dark magneto-optical trap (DMOT), and coupled to an optical Fabry-Perot cavity. The strong coupling is established by measuring the vacuum Rabi splitting (VRS) of a weak on-axis probe beam. The dependence of VRS on the probe beam power is measured, and bi-stability in the cavity transmission is observed. We demonstrate control over the transmission of the probe beam through the atom-cavity system using a free-space off-axis control beam and show that the cavity transmission can be switched on and off in micro-second timescales using micro-Watt control powers. The utility of the system as a tool for sensitive, in-situ and rapid measurements is envisaged.

DOI
10.1063/1.4978933

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We experimentally demonstrate collective strong coupling, optical bi-stability (OB), and all-optical switching in a system consisting of ultracold 85Rb atoms, trapped in a dark magneto-optical trap (DMOT), and coupled to an optical Fabry-Perot cavity. The strong coupling is established by measuring the vacuum Rabi splitting (VRS) of a weak on-axis probe beam. The dependence of VRS on the probe beam power is measured, and bi-stability in the cavity transmission is observed. We demonstrate control over the transmission of the probe beam through the atom-cavity system using a free-space off-axis control beam and show that the cavity transmission can be switched on and off in micro-second timescales using micro-Watt control powers. The utility of the system as a tool for sensitive, in-situ and rapid measurements is envisaged.
We present a technique, based on atoms coupled to an optical cavity, for nondestructive detection of trapped ions. We demonstrate the vacuum-Rabi splitting (VRS), arising from collective strong coupling of ultracold Rb atoms and a cavity, to change in the presence of trapped Rb+\mathrm{R}{\mathrm{b}}^{+}Rb+ ions. The Rb+\mathrm{R}{\mathrm{b}}^{+}Rb+ ions are optically dark and the Rb atoms are prepared in a dark magneto-optical trap. The VRS is measured on an optically open transition of the initially dark Rb atoms. The measurement itself is fast, nondestructive, and has sufficient fidelity to permit the measurement of the atomic-state-selective ion-atom collision rate. This demonstration illustrates a method based on atom-cavity coupling to measure two-particle interactions generically and nondestructively.
Cavity quantum electrodynamic system with strongly coupled single atoms provides a good platform for studying quantum information processing, quantum simulation, quantum network, and distributed quantum computing. Cooling and trapping single atoms is a crucial technique in the quantum technology. At present, in a high-finesse cavity with finite space, cooling and trapping single atoms is a big challenge, even though it is a mature technique for free space. Great efforts have been made to cool and trap single atoms inside a cavity, and for a trapped atom its lifetime has reached as long as tens of seconds. Developing a more flexible method of cooling and trapping single atoms in a cavity is still essential for a strongly coupled cavity quantum electrodynamic system. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally that a single cesium atom in a cavity can be trapped by utilizing a single optical tweezer settled in cavity mode, and its lifetime is (2.60 ± 0.18) s. The experiment is carried out in a Fabry-Perot cavity, which is assembled by two concave mirrors each with a curvature radius of 100 mm, and cavity length of 335 μm. The concave surfaces are highly reflective, and the cavity has a finesse of 6.1 × 104. The 1080 nm optical tweezer with a waist of 2 μm is formed by an achromatic lens group with a numerical aperture of 0.4. At first, the precooled atomic assemble released from the magneto-optical trap (MOT) is transferred into cavity mode by an optical dipole trap with a waist of 36 μm. Then, one of the successfully transferred atoms is captured by the optical tweezer with the aid of cavity cooling mechanism. A blue detuned cavity locking laser is used as a standing-wave optical trap along the cavity axis. The signal of successfully trapped one atom is obtained by recording transmission of the cavity that will decrease owing to the strong coupling induced vacuum Rabi splitting. Finally, we demonstrate the precise manipulation of the atom-cavity coupling strength, which is achieved by scanning the position of the trapped atom step by step by using a high-precision translation stage. The system realized in this work can be used to study the dynamics of single atom-photon interactions with adjustable coupling strength. In addition, the mechanism adopted in this work is compatible with constructing tweezer arrays inside cavity mode, and thus possesses more flexibility and great potentials in cavity-based quantum entanglement and quantum simulation.
We theoretically demonstrate the influence of dark and bright states on vacuum Rabi splitting (VRS) and optical bistability (OB) of the multi-wave-mixing (MWM) process in a collective four-level atomic-cavity coupling system. We numerically investigate the multidressed VRS and OB behavior of the zero- and high-order transmitted cavity modes of MWM signals. A further study demonstrates that VRS and self-Kerr nonlinearity OB can coexist and compete with each other in a cascade relationship, based on which we achieve the goal to control VRS and OB simultaneously through the dark state in the atomic system.
We experimentally demonstrate real-time detection of individual cesium atoms by using a high-finesse optical micro-cavity in a strong coupling regime. A cloud of cesium atoms is trapped in a magneto-optical trap positioned at 5 mm above the micro-cavity center. The atoms fall down freely in gravitation after shutting off the magneto-optical trap and pass through the cavity. The cavity transmission is strongly affected by the atoms in the cavity, which enables the micro-cavity to sense the atoms individually. We detect the single atom transits either in the resonance or various detunings. The single atom vacuum-Rabi splitting is directly measured to be Ω = 2π × 23.9 MHz. The average duration of atom-cavity coupling of about 110 μs is obtained according to the probability distribution of the atom transits.
We laser cool rubidium atoms to form a magneto-optical trap, within a Fabry-Perot cavity, and demonstrate strong coupling of the cold atoms to the cavity. The coupling strength is measured using the vacuum Rabi frequency splitting (VRS) of transmitted, cavity-coupled light on atomic resonance. The VRS is measured for two- and three-level atomic systems and the atom-cavity-coupling strength for each system is determined. By allowing the laser-cooled atoms to expand for different times and measuring the corresponding VRS, we determine the number of atoms overlapped with the cavity mode as a function of time. This time-of-flight of atoms from the cavity permits the measurement of the temperature of the laser-cooled atoms. Finally, the need for this technique and its utility is discussed.