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Quantum Rabi nutation in vacuum and coherent fields: a direct test of field quantization in a cavity

M. Brune, J. M. Raimond, Ferdinand Schmidt‐Kaler, Abdelhamid Maali, J. Dreyer, E. W. Hagley, S. Haroche

Published Jun 7, 1996• 0 citations
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Abstract

Summary form only given. We report here the first observation of the Rabi nutation of an atom in vacuum and in controlled coherent fields. Atomic and cavity relaxations are small enough to permit the observation of four oscillation periods in vacuum and the resolution of several individual frequency components when a field is injected.

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We have observed the Rabi oscillation of circular Rydberg atoms in the vacuum and in small coherent fields stored in a high Q cavity. The signal exhibits discrete Fourier components at frequencies proportional to the square root of successive integers. This provides direct evidence of field quantization in the cavity. The weights of the Fourier components yield the photon number distribution in the field. This investigation of the excited levels of the atom-cavity system reveals nonlinear quantum features at extremely low field strengths.
We perform experiments with Rydberg atoms crossing one at a time a superconducting cavity containing a few microwave photons. The coupling between the atoms and the cavity field is either resonant or dispersive. In the resonant case, quantum Rabi oscillations induced by the vacuum or by a small coherent field are observed. These signals reveals in a striking way the quantization of the field. Quantum Rabi oscillations are also used to prepare Fock states of radiation, to transfer information or to produce entanglement between two successive atoms crossing the cavity. Dispersive atom–field coupling is used to prepare and probe coherent superpositions of field states with different phases (Schrödinger's cat states). The progressive decoherence of these states is observed. These experiments constitute fundamental tests of quantum theory and shed light on the transition from quantum to classical in mesoscopic systems.
Quantum Rabi oscillation in cavity quantum electrodynamics is at the very heart of the interaction of an atomic system with a single electromagnetic field in a resonator. It has proved a powerful tool to entangle the atom with the field in the case of an empty cavity (vacuum Rabi oscillation). On the other side, as soon as the field is macroscopic, its state seems unaffected and one observes the well-known phenomenon of classical Rabi oscillation which only affects the atomic populations. We propose to experimentally investigate the frontier between those two behaviours, when one has to take into account the fluctations of the photon number. In order to do so, we let interact circular Rydberg atoms with a microwave resonator in which a mesocopic field is injected (a few tens of photons). We observe a strong correlation between specific atomic states and the phase of the injected field, which is measured by a homodyne technique. Those correlations explain in an easy way all the standard features of quantum Rabi oscillations (especially the collapses and revivals). Moreover they allow for the preparation of atom-field entangled state as well as non classical Schroedinger cat like states for the field.
Recent experiments with the one-atom maser /1/ have demonstrated that it is possible to study the interaction of single Rydberg atoms with a single quantized mode /2/ of a resonant electromagnetic field in a superconducting cavity. The quality factor is high enough to observe the periodic energy exchange between the atom and the field. The statistical and discrete nature of the photon field leads to new dynamic characteristics such as collapse and revial in the Rabi nutation /3/. Most of the observed effects are purely quantum features /4/.
Summary form only given. We have recently developed the first working single-atom microlaser in which coherent light is generated by means of the interaction of a single two-level atom with a single mode of the radiation field. The photon generation process follows the Jaynes-Cummings model, and photon buildup is initiated by vacuum Rabi oscillations, not by spontaneous emission as in conventional lasers. We measured the mean photon number in the cavity (n) as a function of the average number of atoms present there . Laser oscillation was observed with as small as 0.1, resulting in (n) of 0.1.
Summary form only given. An underlying premise of quantum computing is the preservation of system coherence over long time scales. Here, we report studies of atom-cavity dynamics wherein behavior observed is distinctively related to the ultraslow atomic decoherence found in one such system. In our experiment, the atomic decoherence time is four orders of magnitude longer than the empty-cavity lifetime, making the atomic coherence the longest-lived system parameter. The phenomenon we observe here may be loosely thought of as cavity-mediated self-driven optical nutation, i.e., optical nutation driven by the active atoms own coherent emission into the cavity mode.