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Physical Review A

Lasing due to quantum motion of a trapped ion

Gagik Yu. Kryuchkyan, B. Kneer

Published Dec 1, 1999• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose a simple model of an ion-trap laser: A single two-level ion confined to a harmonic trap, subjected to resolved-sideband laser cooling in the presence of external noise, and coupled strongly to an optical cavity. The lasing of the cavity mode results from the quantized treatment of the ion's motion, and occurs when the cavity is tuned to frequencies of the vibrational sidebands located below the frequency of the cooling laser.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.60.5019

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We propose a simple model of an ion-trap laser: A single two-level ion confined to a harmonic trap, subjected to resolved-sideband laser cooling in the presence of external noise, and coupled strongly to an optical cavity. The lasing of the cavity mode results from the quantized treatment of the ion's motion, and occurs when the cavity is tuned to frequencies of the vibrational sidebands located below the frequency of the cooling laser.
A single two-level atom, with quantized center-of-mass motion, is constrained to move in a one-dimensional harmonic potential while interacting with a single-mode classical traveling-wave light field. When the classical light field is tuned to the atom's lower vibrational sideband, cooling can occur. The strong-sideband and Lamb-Dicke perturbation regimes for the system are defined. The steady-state and time-evolution behaviors in the strong-sideband regime are discussed and, in particular, it is shown that the steady-state average trap number saturates when spontaneous emission is weak and that the steady-state average trap number depends more strongly on the trap frequency in the saturated regime than previously predicted. Finally, the possibility of observing quantum jumps between trap levels is discussed.
We investigate the conquest of sideband laser cooling and heating due to weak broad-band noise for a harmonically trapped two-level ion. The two opposite processes from an equilibrium distribution in the ion's quantum state of motion, i.e., the ground state of motion is depopulated. As another consequence we find population inversion between different manifolds of the ion's combined quantum states of internal electronic structure and external motion. This effect only results from the quantized treatment of the ion's motion.
We propose a model for a single-trapped-ion vibronic Raman laser and study its dynamics by using quantum-trajectory methods. In our treatment, it is essential that both the cavity field of the high-finesse optical cavity and the center-of-mass vibrational motion of the trapped ion be quantized. A transition from a super-Poissonian light source to a Poissonian lasing regime is obtained by increasing the Raman coupling constant. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a nonclassical regime can be realized, where the photon statistics becomes sub-Poissonian and the photons leak out of the cavity in an antibunched manner. This is achieved by exploiting nonlinear Stark shifts inherent in the model, which depend on both the number of cavity photons and the number of vibrational quanta.
An experimental study of sideband laser cooling of trapped ions in miniature radio-frequency traps is presented. In+{\mathrm{In}}^{+}In+ ions are laser cooled by exciting the narrow intercombination line ${5s}^{2}{}^{1}{S}_{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}5s5p{}^{3}{P}_{1}$, which shows resolved sidebands due to the vibrational motion of the ions in the trap. The influence of the micromotion at the frequency of the oscillating trapping field is investigated. Heating processes through coupling with the trapping field occur for certain regions of negative laser detuning. A method of bichromatic sideband cooling is introduced that combines efficient cooling from high temperatures with the possibility of reaching low mean vibrational quantum numbers 〈n〉<1〈n〉<1〈n〉<1 by using narrow optical transitions. This technique allows recording of high-resolution excitation spectra of the cooling transition in the Lamb-Dicke regime and thus determination of 〈n〉〈n〉〈n〉. Single ions as well as two-ion Coulomb crystals have been cooled to temperatures below $100 \ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$, and population of the ground state of motion to more than 50% over long time scales is demonstrated. These values are close to the lower limit for the detection of vibrational excitation with the present method.
We study laser cooling of two ions that are trapped in a harmonic potential and interact by Coulomb repulsion. Sideband cooling in the Lamb-Dicke regime is shown to work analogously to sideband cooling of a single ion. Outside the Lamb-Dicke regime, the incommensurable frequencies of the two vibrational modes result in a quasicontinuous energy spectrum that significantly alters the cooling dynamics. The cooling time decreases nonlinearly with the linewidth of the cooling transition, and the effect of dark states which may slow down the cooling is considerably reduced. We show that cooling to the ground state is also possible outside the Lamb-Dicke regime. We develop the model and use quantum Monte Carlo calculations for specific examples. We show that a rate equation treatment is a good approximation in all cases.