We demonstrate the trajectory measurement of the single neutral atoms deterministically using a high-finesse optical microcavity. The single atom strongly couples to the high-order transverse vacuum TEM
10 mode, instead of the usual TEM
00 mode, and the parameters of the system are $({g}_{10},\ensuremath{\kappa},\ensuremath{\gamma})=2\ensuremath{\pi}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}(20.5,2.6,2.6) \text{MHz}$. The atoms simply fall down freely from the magneto-optical trap into the cavity modes, and the trajectories of the single atoms are linear. The transmission spectra of atoms passing through the TEM
10 mode are detected by single-photon counting modules and are well fitted. Thanks to the tilted cavity transverse TEM
10 mode, which is inclined to the vertical direction
${45}^{\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}}$, it helps us to eliminate the degenerate trajectory of the single atom falling through the cavity and to obtain a unique atom trajectory. An atom position with a high precision of $0.1 \ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}$ in the off-axis direction (axis
y) is obtained, and a spatial resolution of $5.6 \ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}$ is achieved in a time interval of $10 \ensuremath{\mu}\text{s}$ along the vertical direction (axis
x). The average velocity of the atoms is also measured from the atom transits, which determines independently the temperature of the atoms in a magneto-optical trap, $186\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}19 \ensuremath{\mu}\text{K}$.
A coupled quantum system composed of cavity field and atoms is one of the main research contents of cavity quantum electrodynamics. It can be used to realize single atom manipulation and measurement, and has important significance for studying the interaction between light and the atom, preparing quantum states and quantum entanglement. Current research work mainly focuses on two aspects. One is to achieve the atom trapping via the feedback control of the trapping laser intensity. The other is to measure the single atomic motion in a Fabry-Perot cavity by using Hermite-Gaussian transverse modes. The detection of the atomic trajectories has been realized via the observation of transmission spectra of the strong coupling system composed of cold atoms and Hermite-Gaussian transverse modes in a Fabry-Perot cavity. In order to observe the atomic motion trajectories in the cavity, we theoretically study the transmission spectrum of a strong coupling system composed of cold atoms and Laguerre-Gaussian transverse modes in a Fabry-Perot cavity in this paper. We calculate the relationship between the coupling coefficient and the mode number of Laguerre-Gaussian transverse modes. The result shows that with the increase of Laguerre-Gaussian transverse mode number, the maximum coupling coefficient between the atoms and cavity fields is almost unchanged, so the contrast of the detected spectrum is nearly independent of the mode number. Analysis shows that Laguerre-Gaussian transverse mode provides more abundant information about atomic motion trajectory than Hermite-Gaussian transverse mode. The field distribution of Laguerre-Gaussian transverse mode is ring-shaped. Owing to the ring shape, the atoms dropped at different positions experience different electric field intensities, and the detected transmission spectra are changed. Therefore, we can implement the high precision distinguishment of the atomic trajectories by observing the features of the transmission spectra such as the number of the transmission peaks and their positions. Furthermore, a small deviation of the atomic motion trajectories, on the edges of the rings of the electric field, may induce great change in transmission spectrum, and then we can very accurately detect the atomic motion around these positions.
Summary form only given. We observe the quantized motion of single atoms strongly coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity and investigate dynamics of cavity-assisted atom cooling. Single caesium atoms are trapped in a blue-detuned standing-wave intracavity dipole trap, formed by a lock laser which is used to stabilize the cavity resonance frequency. A probe laser is coupled into the cavity mode and its transmission spectrum is monitored by means of photon-counting heterodyne spectroscopy [2].Measured heterodyne spectra of single atoms in the cavity are shown in Fig. 1 for two different lock-laser intensities and compared with theoretical models. The motional Raman sidebands are offset from the carrier beat signal at 1 MHz by the atomic vibrational frequency (±ν). They show asymmetric lineshapes due to the anharmonicity of the dipole potential.We investigate the dependence of the positions and lineshapes of the motional Raman sidebands on experimantal parameters such as the cavity-atom detuning, and lock-laser intensity. Information on the atomic temperature, cooling and heating rates, as well as the atomic position in the cavity with respect to an antinode of the cavity probe field are found by comparing the observed spectra with theoretical predictions [1]. In addition, this technique can also be used to analyze the cooling dynamics of a cavity-assisted EIT cooling scheme which has been recently studied and demonstrated in [3,4].
Summary form only given. The strong atom-photon coupling generated inside high-finesse optical micro cavity lets us detect a single atom trajectory in real time. Such a strong coupling is a candidate for trapping a single atom with a single photon. Dynamics of trapped atoms can be observed in situ and in real time by detecting intensity change on the transmission of a blue-shifted laser beam. We cooled down and trapped rubidium atoms by using conventional cell magneto optical trap (MOT) and launched them into the micro optical cavity which locates 35 mm above the MOT. By using this signal as trigger and changing the laser frequency, it is, in principle, possible to trap the atom in the cavity.
We experimentally demonstrate strong coupling between a one-dimensional (1D) single-atom array and a high-finesse miniature cavity. The atom array is obtained by loading single atoms into a 1D optical tweezer array with dimensions of 1×11. Therefore, a deterministic number of atoms is obtained, and the atom number is determined by imaging the atom array on a CCD camera in real time. By precisely controlling the position and spacing of the atom array in the high finesse Fabry-Perot cavity, all the atoms in the array are strongly coupled to the cavity simultaneously. The vacuum Rabi splitting spectra are discriminated for deterministic atom numbers from 1 to 8, and the sqrt[N] dependence of the collective enhancement of the coupling strength on atom number N is validated at the single-atom level.