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Physical Review A

Single-atom dynamics revealed by photon correlations

V. Gomer, Frank Strauch, B. Ueberholz, Svenja A. Knappe, Dieter Meschede

Published Sep 1, 1998• 23 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have studied a single neutral atom stored in a magneto-optical trap by recording arrival times of fluorescence photons emitted by the atom. Photon correlations at nanosecond scales (Rabi oscillations), at microseconds (intensity and polarization correlations), and also at milliseconds (position correlations) reveal the dynamical behavior of the atomic excitation, of the atomic orientation, and of its transport in the trap at both the optical wavelength scale and the trap size.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.58.r1657

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We have studied a single neutral atom stored in a magneto-optical trap by recording arrival times of fluorescence photons emitted by the atom. Photon correlations at nanosecond scales (Rabi oscillations), at microseconds (intensity and polarization correlations), and also at milliseconds (position correlations) reveal the dynamical behavior of the atomic excitation, of the atomic orientation, and of its transport in the trap at both the optical wavelength scale and the trap size.
Isolation of a single atomic particle and monitoring its resonance fluorescence is a powerful tool for studies of quantum effects in radiation-matter interactions. We present observations of quantum dynamics of an isolated neutral atom stored in a magneto-optical trap. By means of photon correlations in the atom's resonance fluorescence we demonstrate the well-known phenomenon of photon antibunching which corresponds to transient Rabi oscillations in the atom. Through polarization-sensitive photon correlations, we show a novel example of resolved quantum fluctuations: spontaneous magnetic orientation of an atom. These effects can only be observed with a single atom.
Resonance fluorescence from atomic systems consists of a single spectral peak that evolves into a Mollow triplet for a strong excitation field. Photons from different peaks of the triplet show distinct timing correlations that make the fluorescence a useful light source for quantum information purposes. We characterize the fluorescence of a single optically trapped 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atom that is excited resonantly at different power levels. Second-order correlation measurements reveal the single photon nature of the fluorescence concurrently with Rabi oscillations of a strongly excited atom. The asymmetry in correlations between photons from two sidebands of the fluorescence spectrum when the atom is exposed to an off-resonant field indicates that there is a preferred time ordering of the emitted photons from different sidebands.
We describe a simple experimental technique which allows us to store a small and deterministic number of neutral atoms in an optical dipole trap. The desired atom number is prepared in a magneto-optical trap overlapped with a single focused Nd:YAG laser beam. Dipole trap loading efficiency of 100% and storage times of about one minute have been achieved. We have also prepared atoms in a certain hyperfine state and demonstrated the feasibility of a state-selective detection via resonance fluorescence at the level of a few neutral atoms. A spin relaxation time of the polarized sample of 4.2+/-0.7 s has been measured. Possible applications are briefly discussed.