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Quantum Optics with Single Atoms and Single Photons

Q. A. Turchette

Published May 11, 2017• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An atom strongly coupled to a high-finesse resonator forms a microscopic optical system in which the interaction of single atoms with single photons has significant consequences. This is in contrast to a typical optical system in which a field composed of many photons interacts with a medium consisting of many atoms. This unique optical system has been used in studies of the fundamental matter-radiation interaction on the single quantum level, in quantum computation, and in real-time, high-position-resolution detection of single atoms.

DOI
10.7907/mwpz-dz68

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An atom strongly coupled to a high-finesse resonator forms a microscopic optical system in which the interaction of single atoms with single photons has significant consequences. This is in contrast to a typical optical system in which a field composed of many photons interacts with a medium consisting of many atoms. This unique optical system has been used in studies of the fundamental matter-radiation interaction on the single quantum level, in quantum computation, and in real-time, high-position-resolution detection of single atoms.
A tutorial review is given on recent experiments performed with 1 ⩽ N ⩽ 110 atoms in a microscopic high-finesse optical cavity. The resonator has length 1 mm and finesse 80 000. The radiative properties of the strongly coupled atom-cavity system differ from those of the individual components. For example, spontaneous emission is reversible, the first excited state of the composite system splits into two levels and the intensity fluctuations of the light transmitted by the resonator are nonclassical. We observe photon-antibunching and sub-Poissonian photon statistics. In terms of practical applications, the system renders possible ( i ) the detection of single atoms with high sensitivity and ( ii ) optical bistability for a few atoms and photons only.
The generation of correlated photons typically requires a highly nonlinear medium that is strongly coupled to an optical mode. Recently, significant advances have been made in this direction by strongly coupling photons to quantum emitters and exploiting the inherently nonlinear response of the latter. A number of methods have been pursued for this purpose, employing, e.g., high finesse optical cavities or strongly interacting Rydberg atoms. However, the implementation of strong and low-loss photon-photon interactions remains a challenging goal.
The realization of strong nonlinear interactions between individual light quanta (photons) is a long-standing goal in optical science and engineering, being of both fundamental and technological significance. We describe and demonstrate a medium that is nonlinear at the level of individual quanta, exhibiting strong absorption and phase shift for photon pairs while remaining transparent to single photons. The quantum nonlinearity is obtained by coherently coupling slowly propagating photons to strongly interacting atomic Rydberg states in a cold, dense atomic gas. Finally, we will discuss our progress towards realization of integrated quantum photonic systems, based on deterministic coupling of individual atoms and atom-like systems to photonic crystal cavities.
Summary form only given. The strong coupling between an atom and the light field in an optical microresonator causes a single atom to alter the transmission of the cavity significantly, allowing its continuous observation. At the same time, the strong coupling leads to novel optical forces acting on the atom. It was predicted that it should be possible to trap an atom with single intracavity photons. Using an atomic fountain, we inject single ultracold neutral atoms in the standing-wave light field of a high-finesse optical cavity. When an atom is detected in the cavity, the laser light pumping the cavity is suddenly switched to a higher value. This increases the depth of the optical dipole potential and traps the atom in the cavity field.
A Bose–Einstein condensate is dispersively coupled to a single mode of an ultra-high finesse optical cavity. The system is governed by strong interactions between the atomic motion and the light field even at the level of single quanta. While coherently pumping the cavity mode the condensate is subject to the cavity optical lattice potential whose depth depends nonlinearly on the atomic density distribution. We observe optical bistability already below the single photon level and strong back-action dynamics which tunes the coupled system periodically out of resonance.
In this thesis, a model system of quantum optics is experimentally studied - a single atom coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity. Upon excitation with laser pulses, the atom-cavity system undergoes vacuum Rabi oscillations between the atom and the cavity field. This is accompanied by the controlled emission of single photons. The optical resonator also enables efficient state detection of single neutral atoms. We introduce a method based on cavity-enhanced fluorescence and achieve a fidelity of 99.4 % for the detection of the atomic hyperfine state within 85 µs. Further, this thesis presents experiments on electromagnetically induced transparency with a single atom and on phase shaping of single photon wave packets. The atom-cavity system has promising applications in quantum information science.