Oxford University Press eBooks
Photons in a box
S. Haroche, J. M. Raimond
Abstract
This chapter discusses the experimental methods developed in the field of cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED). Section 5.1 presents a short history of CQED. Section 5.2 describes the circular Rydberg atoms and the superconducting cavities that are the two ‘partners’ in these experiments, and analyses the coupling between them. As first examples, Section 5.3 presents two basic experiments unveiling in a dramatic way the quantumness of the atom-field system. Section 5.4 describes entanglement procedures in CQED, showing how the resonant Rabi oscillation is used to entangle one atom and the field, two atoms, or two field modes. The chapter concludes by describing non-resonant atom-cavity experiments that provide an alternative recipe for atom-atom entanglement.