Suppression of single-cesium-atom heating in a microscopic optical dipole trap for demonstration of an 852-nm triggered single-photon source
Bei Liu, Gang Jin, Jun He +1 more
We investigate single-cesium-atom heating owing to the momentum accumulation process induced by the resonant pulsed excitation in a microscopic optical dipole trap formed by a strongly focused 1064-nm laser beam. The heating depends on the trap frequency, which restricts the maximum repetition rate of the pulsed excitation. We experimentally verify the heating of a single atom and then demonstrate how to suppress it with an optimized pulsed excitation and cooling method. The typical trap lifetime of a single cesium atom is extended from $108\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}6\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$ to $2536\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}31\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ms}$, and the corresponding number of excitations increases from $\ensuremath{\sim}108$ to $\ensuremath{\sim}360\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}000$. In applying this faster cooling method, we use the trapped single cesium atom as a triggered single-photon source at an excitation repetition rate of 10 MHz. The second-order intensity correlations of the emitted single photons are characterized by implementing a Hanbury Brown and Twiss setup, and a clear antibunching effect has been observed.
arXiv:1606.06978•Physical Review A•Jul 13, 2016•9 citations