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European Journal of Physics

Quantum jumps in atomic systems

R. Blatt, P. Zoller

Published Oct 1, 1988• 140 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The authors summarise the principal aspects of the recent discussion regarding the observation of Bohr's quantum jumps in resonance fluorescence from three-level systems. The experimental results are reviewed and possible applications are given.
DOI
10.1088/0143-0807/9/4/002

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We have recorded the laser-excited resonance fluorescence of one to three Ba+{\mathrm{Ba}}^{+}Ba+ ions and observed Bohr's "quantum jumps" when an ion decayed to the metastable 2D52^{2}D_{\frac{5}{2}}2D25​​ state, suddenly quenching its fluorescence. Most of the jumps mark Raman-Stokes scattering from the 2S12^{2}S_{\frac{1}{2}}2S21​​ and 2D32^{2}D_{\frac{3}{2}}2D23​​ levels.
Introduction The quantum theory of atoms and molecules had its origin in the famous 1913 paper of Bohr [186] in which he suggested that the interaction of radiation and atoms occurred with the transition of an atom from one stationary internal state to another, accompanied by the emission or absorption of radiation of a frequency determined by the energy difference between these states. These transitions came to be known as ‘quantum jumps’. Since all experiments until the late 1970s used to be carried out with large ensembles of atoms and molecules, these jumps were masked and could not be directly observed; they were only inferred from spectroscopic data. In fact, with the advent of quantum mechanics they eventually came to be regarded as artefacts of Bohr's simple-minded semi-classical model. But with the availability of coherent light sources and single ions prepared in ion traps [187], [188], and optically cooled [189], [190], the issue has been reopened with the experimental demonstration of quantum jumps in single ions [191], [192], [193]. These experiments have also opened up the contentious issue of wave function collapse or reduction on measurement, as they can be regarded as making collapse visible on the oscilloscope screen [191]. Evidence of the discrete nature of quantum transitions in a single quantum system had been accumulating from the observation of photon anti-bunching in single-atom resonance fluorescence [194], the tunneling of single electrons in metal–oxide-–semiconductor junctions [195] and spin-flips of individual electrons in a Penning trap [196].
According to the usual interpretation of quantum mechanics, measurement of an observable yields its eigenvalue. Extrapolation of classical reasoning then suggests that at every instant of time the quantum system actually is in one of the eigenstates of the observable, and as time goes on it executes random jumps between the states. In this spirit, Cook and Kimble1 have recently elaborated Dehmelt’s suggestion2 that fluorescence from a laser-driven two-level system weakly coupled to a third state may turn on and off when the atom jumps between the active two-level system and the inactive third state.
One of the experiments made possible by the trapping and cooling of a single atom is to observe the quantum jumps to a metastable state in the atom by monitoring the resonance fluorescence of a strong transition in which at least one of the states is coupled to the metastable state. When the atomic electron moves to the metastable state, the fluorescence from the strongly driven transition disappears. When the electron drops back into the strongly driven transition, the fluorescence abruptly returns. Statistical analysis of these random interruptions to the fluorescence signal implies photon antibunching in the emission of the weak photon.