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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Controlled insertion of one and two atoms into a high-finesse optical cavity

Wolfgang Alt, I. Dotsenko, Tobias Kampschulte, Mkrtych Khudaverdyan, Sebastian Reick, Ariane Stiebeiner, Dieter Meschede, Arno Rauschenbeutel

Published Jun 1, 2007• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Entangled quantum states have applications as a model system for strongly correlated many body states, as resource for quantum information processing and as a tool for enhanced precision measurements. Deterministic entanglement schemes create the desired state by transferring the system under the action of a carefully chosen Hamiltonian into an entangled state. The system must follow a unitary evolution, and uncontrolled parasitic interactions with the environment leading to spontaneous decay or partial measurements of the state have to be avoided. The paper present an experiment, on loading a chosen number of Doppler-cooled caesium atoms from a magneto-optical trap into a standing wave optical dipole trap. The positions of the individual atoms are then determined with sub-micrometer precision, enabling to prepare, to manipulate and to read out the quantum state of each atom. Using the dipole trap as an optical conveyor belt, the atoms are transported into the mode of a high-finesse optical cavity.

DOI
10.1109/cleoe-iqec.2007.4386940

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•Jan 1, 2009•1 citation
Entangled quantum states have applications as a model system for strongly correlated many body states, as resource for quantum information processing and as a tool for enhanced precision measurements. Deterministic entanglement schemes create the desired state by transferring the system under the action of a carefully chosen Hamiltonian into an entangled state. The system must follow a unitary evolution, and uncontrolled parasitic interactions with the environment leading to spontaneous decay or partial measurements of the state have to be avoided. The paper present an experiment, on loading a chosen number of Doppler-cooled caesium atoms from a magneto-optical trap into a standing wave optical dipole trap. The positions of the individual atoms are then determined with sub-micrometer precision, enabling to prepare, to manipulate and to read out the quantum state of each atom. Using the dipole trap as an optical conveyor belt, the atoms are transported into the mode of a high-finesse optical cavity.
The coupling of individual atoms to a high-finesse optical cavity is precisely controlled and adjusted using a standing-wave dipole-force trap, a challenge for strong atom-cavity coupling. Ultracold Rubidium atoms are first loaded into potential minima of the dipole trap in the center of the cavity. Then we use the trap as a conveyor belt that we set into motion perpendicular to the cavity axis. This allows us to repetitively move atoms out of and back into the cavity mode with a repositioning precision of 135 nm. This makes it possible to either selectively address one atom of a string of atoms by the cavity, or to simultaneously couple two precisely separated atoms to a higher mode of the cavity.
Cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED) describes electromagnetic fields in a confined space and the radiative properties of atoms in such fields. The simplest example of such system is a single atom interacting with one mode of a high-finesse resonator. Besides observation and exploration of fundamental quantum mechanical effects, this system bears a high potential for applications quantum information science such as, e.g., quantum logic gates, quantum communication and quantum teleportation. In this thesis I present an experiment on the deterministic coupling of a single neutral atom to the mode of a high-finesse optical resonator. In Chapter 1 I describe our basic techniques for trapping and observing single cesium atoms. As a source of single atoms we use a high-gradient magneto-optical trap, which captures the atoms from background gas in a vacuum chamber and cools them down to millikelvin temperatures. The atoms are then transferred without loss into a standing-wave dipole trap, which provides a conservative potential required for experiments on atomic coherence such as quantum information processing and metrology on trapped atoms. Moreover, shifting the standing-wave pattern allows us to deterministically transport the atoms (Chapter 2). In combination with non-destructive fluorescence imaging of individual trapped atoms, this enables us to control their position with submicrometer precision over several millimeters along the dipole trap. The cavity QED system can distinctly display quantum behaviour in the so-called strong coupling regime, i.e., when the coherent atom-cavity coupling rate dominates dissipation in the system. This sets the main requirements on the resonator's properties: small mode volume and high finesse. Chapter 3 is devoted to the manufacturing, assembling, and testing of an ultra-high finesse optical Fabry-Perot resonator, stabilized to the atomic transition. In Chapter 4 I present the transportation of single atoms into the cavity and their coupling to the cavity mode. The strong coupling manifests itself in a strong reduction of the cavity transmission probed by a weak external laser. The atoms remain trapped and coupled to the cavity mode for several seconds until we move them out of the cavity for final analysis of their number and position.
We experimentally investigate the interaction between one and two atoms and the field of a high-finesse optical resonator. Laser-cooled caesium atoms are transported into the cavity using an optical dipole trap. We monitor the interaction dynamics of a single atom strongly coupled to the resonator mode for several hundred milliseconds by observing the cavity transmission. Moreover, we investigate the position-dependent coupling of one and two atoms by shuttling them through the cavity mode. We demonstrate an alternative method, which suppresses heating effects, to analyse the atom–field interaction by retrieving the atom from the cavity and by measuring its final state.
Abstract. We experimentally investigate the interaction between one and two atoms and the field of a high-finesse optical resonator. Laser-cooled caesium atoms are transported into the cavity using an optical dipole trap. We monitor the interaction dynamics of a single atom strongly coupled to the resonator mode for several hundred milliseconds by observing the cavity transmission. Moreover, we investigate the position-dependent coupling of one and two atoms by shuttling them through the cavity mode. We demonstrate an alternative method, which suppresses heating effects, to analyze the atom-field interaction by retrieving the atom from the cavity and by measuring its final state.
Entangled quantum states haveapplications asamodelsystem forstrongly correlated manybodystates, asresource forquantum information processing andasatool forenhanced precision measurements. Deterministic entanglement schemes create thedesired state bytransferring thesystem under theaction ofacarefully chosen Hamiltonian into an entangled state. Thesystem mustfollow a unitary evolution, anduncontrolled parasitic interactions withthe environment leading tospontaneous decay orpartial measurements ofthestate havetobeavoided. Entangled states canalsobecreated inaprobabilistic manner: By performing asuitable partial measurement ofthesystem's state, the probe measurement outcomeindicates whether thesystemhasbeen laser projected into thedesired state ornotbythemeasurement's backaction. Suchprobabilistic schemescan relaxthestringent requirements onthesuppression ofdissipation inourcavity-QED system [1,2]. cavity Inourexperiment, we loada chosen numberofdoppler-cooled mirror
A system comprised of a small number of neutral atoms coupled to the mode of a high finesse optical resonator is a model system to study light-matter interaction at the quantum level and to explore fundamental effects like the influence of the measurement process on the atomic state. Promising proposals to generate entangled states in such systems are based on the simultaneous coupling of two atoms to one resonator mode. In chapter 1 of this thesis I shortly summarise the experimental tools to capture, trap, and transport single atoms using a magneto-optical trap and an optical conveyor belt. I discuss theoretical foundations to describe our system and present numerical simulations, the results of which enter the analysis of our experimental data. The average atom-cavity coupling strength is deduced from the measured cavity transmission and compared to a model taking atomic motion into account. The dynamics of the hyperfine spin state of one and two coupled atoms is the focus of chapter 2. I describe a nondestructive cavity-based state detection method, quantify the state detection fidelity, and identify optimum experimental parameters. This method is then used to record random telegraph signals, exhibiting quantum jumps on a timescale of milliseconds. Telegraph signals for two atoms are analysed employing Bayesian statistics, yielding additional information on the evolution of the hyperfine states. A good localisation of the atom is necessary to achieve stable coupling to the cavity mode. In chapter 3, I discuss two different aspects of how the motion of the atom can be controlled. Firstly an intracavity dipole trap is characterised and it is shown that it results in improved confinement of the atom. Secondly I examine the dependence of cavity-cooling forces on our experimental parameters and compare two different cooling regimes.