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AIP conference proceedings

The one-atom maser and the generation of nonclassical light

Gerhard Rempe, Marlan O. Scully, HERBERT WALTHER

Published Jan 1, 1991• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We review our recent work on the nonclassical radiation field of a one‐atom maser. The maser cavity is cooled to 0.5 K to exclude thermal photons and has a quality factor of 3×1010. Velocity‐selected rydberg atoms pump the maser. The field inside the cavity is measured via the fluctuations in the number of atoms leaving the cavity in the lower maser level which are up to 40% below the Poisson level. This corresponds to photon‐number fluctuations 70% below the vacuum‐state limit. We propose and analyze new experiments based on this maser designed to study the quantum measurement process.

DOI
10.1063/1.40959

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The One-Atom Maser and the Generation of Nonclassical Light

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We review our recent work on the nonclassical radiation field of a one-atom maser. The maser cavity is cooled to 0.5 K to exclude thermal photons and has a quality factor of 3 × 10 10 . Velocity-selected Rydberg atoms pump the maser. The field inside the cavity is measured via the fluctuations in the number of atoms leaving the cavity in the lower maser level which are up to 40% below the Poisson level. This corresponds to photon-number fluctuations 70% below the vacuum-state limit. The one-atom maser is the only maser system which leads to nonclassical radiation even when pumping processes with Poissonian statistics are used. We analyse and propose new experiments based on the one-atom maser leading to new studies of the quantum measurement process.

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. In this paper experiments performed with the one-atom maser are reviewed. Furthermore, possible experiments to test basic quantum physics are discussed. Introduction, the One-Atom-Maser The most promising avenue to study the generation process of radiation in lasers and masers is to drive a maser consisting of a single mode cavity by single atoms. This system, at first glance, seems to be another example of a Gedanken-experiment treated in the pioneering work of Jaynes and Cummings (1963), but such a one-atom maser (Meschede, Walther and Müller, 1985) really exists and can in addition be used to study the basic principles of radiation-atom interaction. The advantages of the system are: it is the first maser which sustains oscillations with less than one atom on the average in the cavity, this setup allows to study in detail the conditions necessary to obtain nonclassical radiation, especially radiation with sub-Poissonian photon statistics in a maser system directly in a Poissonian pumping process, and it is possible to study a variety of phenomena of a quantum field including the quantum measurement process. What are the tools that make this device work: It was the enormous progress in constructing superconducting cavities together with the laser preparation of highly excited atoms – Rydberg atoms – that have made the realization of such a one-atom maser possible.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Sep 2, 1993•1 citation
We review our recent work on the nonclassical radiation field of a one‐atom maser. The maser cavity is cooled to 0.5 K to exclude thermal photons and has a quality factor of 3×1010. Velocity‐selected rydberg atoms pump the maser. The field inside the cavity is measured via the fluctuations in the number of atoms leaving the cavity in the lower maser level which are up to 40% below the Poisson level. This corresponds to photon‐number fluctuations 70% below the vacuum‐state limit. We propose and analyze new experiments based on this maser designed to study the quantum measurement process.
We review our recent work on the nonclassical radiation field of a one-atom maser. The maser cavity is cooled to 0.5 K to exclude thermal photons and has a quality factor of 3 × 10 10 . Velocity-selected Rydberg atoms pump the maser. The field inside the cavity is measured via the fluctuations in the number of atoms leaving the cavity in the lower maser level which are up to 40% below the Poisson level. This corresponds to photon-number fluctuations 70% below the vacuum-state limit. The one-atom maser is the only maser system which leads to nonclassical radiation even when pumping processes with Poissonian statistics are used. We analyse and propose new experiments based on the one-atom maser leading to new studies of the quantum measurement process.
The work on the one-atom maser is reviewed. The superconducting maser cavity made of niobium and cooled to 0.5 K to exclude thermal photons has a quality factor of 3 X 1010. Velocity-selected Rydberg atoms pump the maser. The field inside the cavity is investigated by probing the atoms leaving the cavity. The dynamics of the Rabi nutation were investigated. Furthermore, the statistics of the photons in the cavity were determined to be sub-Poissonian corresponding to photon-number fluctuations of 70% below the vacuum-state limit. The one-atom maser is the only maser system which leads to nonclassical radiation even when pumping processes with Poissonian statistics are used. Some applications of the one- atom maser to study the quantum measurement process also are discussed.
We describe the first investigation of the nonclassical radiation field of a micromaser. The maser cavity is cooled to 0.5 K to exclude thermal photons and has a quality factor 3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1010{10}^{10}1010. Velocity-selected Rydberg atoms pump the maser. The photon statistics in the cavity are measured via the statistics of the atoms leaving the cavity in the lower maser level. Taking into account a detection efficiency of 10%, their fluctuations are reduced up to 40% below the Poisson level. This corresponds to photon-number fluctuations in the cavity of up to 70% below the vacuum-state limit.
Quality factor of up to 4/spl times/10/sup 10/, corresponding to an average lifetime of a photon in the cavity of 0.3 s, are achieved. The photon lifetime is thus much longer than the interaction time of an atom with the maser field. The atoms used are rubidium Rydberg atoms pumped by laser excitation into the upper maser level, 63P/sub 3/2/, the lower maser level is either the 61D/sub 5/2/ or the 61D/sub 3/2/ depending on the cavity frequency. The atom field dynamics is observed by measuring the atoms in the upper or lower maser levels after the cavity. During the interaction the field in the cavity consists only of single or a few photons, nevertheless, it is possible to study the interaction in detail.
Recent experiments with the one-atom maser1 have demonstrated that it is possible to study the interaction of single Rydberg atoms with a single quantized mode2 of a resonant electromagnetic field in a super conducting cavity. The quality factor is high enough to observe the periodic energy exchange between the atom and field. The statistical and discrete nature of the photon field leads to new dynamic characteristics such as collapse and revival in the Rabi nu tation.3 Most of the observed effects are purely quantum features.4
. In this paper experiments performed with the one-atom maser are reviewed. Furthermore, possible experiments to test basic quantum physics are discussed. Introduction, the One-Atom-Maser The most promising avenue to study the generation process of radiation in lasers and masers is to drive a maser consisting of a single mode cavity by single atoms. This system, at first glance, seems to be another example of a Gedanken-experiment treated in the pioneering work of Jaynes and Cummings (1963), but such a one-atom maser (Meschede, Walther and Müller, 1985) really exists and can in addition be used to study the basic principles of radiation-atom interaction. The advantages of the system are: it is the first maser which sustains oscillations with less than one atom on the average in the cavity, this setup allows to study in detail the conditions necessary to obtain nonclassical radiation, especially radiation with sub-Poissonian photon statistics in a maser system directly in a Poissonian pumping process, and it is possible to study a variety of phenomena of a quantum field including the quantum measurement process. What are the tools that make this device work: It was the enormous progress in constructing superconducting cavities together with the laser preparation of highly excited atoms – Rydberg atoms – that have made the realization of such a one-atom maser possible.