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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Real-time detection of single atoms with transverse mode of high-finesse optical micro cavity

Noritsugu Shiokawa, Y. Shimizu, Noriaki Yamamoto, T. Noguchi, Mikio Kozuma, T. Kuga

Published Aug 29, 2005• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1109/iqec.2000.908079

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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 real-time detection of individual cesium atoms by using a high-finesse optical micro-cavity in a strong coupling regime. A cloud of cesium atoms is trapped in a magneto-optical trap positioned at 5 mm above the micro-cavity center. The atoms fall down freely in gravitation after shutting off the magneto-optical trap and pass through the cavity. The cavity transmission is strongly affected by the atoms in the cavity, which enables the micro-cavity to sense the atoms individually. We detect the single atom transits either in the resonance or various detunings. The single atom vacuum-Rabi splitting is directly measured to be Ω = 2π × 23.9 MHz. The average duration of atom-cavity coupling of about 110 μs is obtained according to the probability distribution of the atom transits.
Cavity quantum electrodynamic system with strongly coupled single atoms provides a good platform for studying quantum information processing, quantum simulation, quantum network, and distributed quantum computing. Cooling and trapping single atoms is a crucial technique in the quantum technology. At present, in a high-finesse cavity with finite space, cooling and trapping single atoms is a big challenge, even though it is a mature technique for free space. Great efforts have been made to cool and trap single atoms inside a cavity, and for a trapped atom its lifetime has reached as long as tens of seconds. Developing a more flexible method of cooling and trapping single atoms in a cavity is still essential for a strongly coupled cavity quantum electrodynamic system. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally that a single cesium atom in a cavity can be trapped by utilizing a single optical tweezer settled in cavity mode, and its lifetime is (2.60 ± 0.18) s. The experiment is carried out in a Fabry-Perot cavity, which is assembled by two concave mirrors each with a curvature radius of 100 mm, and cavity length of 335 μm. The concave surfaces are highly reflective, and the cavity has a finesse of 6.1 × 104. The 1080 nm optical tweezer with a waist of 2 μm is formed by an achromatic lens group with a numerical aperture of 0.4. At first, the precooled atomic assemble released from the magneto-optical trap (MOT) is transferred into cavity mode by an optical dipole trap with a waist of 36 μm. Then, one of the successfully transferred atoms is captured by the optical tweezer with the aid of cavity cooling mechanism. A blue detuned cavity locking laser is used as a standing-wave optical trap along the cavity axis. The signal of successfully trapped one atom is obtained by recording transmission of the cavity that will decrease owing to the strong coupling induced vacuum Rabi splitting. Finally, we demonstrate the precise manipulation of the atom-cavity coupling strength, which is achieved by scanning the position of the trapped atom step by step by using a high-precision translation stage. The system realized in this work can be used to study the dynamics of single atom-photon interactions with adjustable coupling strength. In addition, the mechanism adopted in this work is compatible with constructing tweezer arrays inside cavity mode, and thus possesses more flexibility and great potentials in cavity-based quantum entanglement and quantum simulation.
The enhanced coupling between atoms and photons inside a high-finesse optical cavity provides a novel basis for optical measurements that continuously monitor atomic degrees of freedom. We describe an experiment in which cavity quantum-electrodynamic effects are utilized for real-time detection of individual atoms falling through an optical cavity after being dropped from a magneto-optical trap. Our technique permits experiments that are triggered by the presence of a single optimally coupled atom within the cavity mode volume.
Summary form only given. The strong coupling between an atom and the light field in an optical microresonator causes a single atom to alter the transmission of the cavity significantly, allowing its continuous observation. At the same time, the strong coupling leads to novel optical forces acting on the atom. It was predicted that it should be possible to trap an atom with single intracavity photons. Using an atomic fountain, we inject single ultracold neutral atoms in the standing-wave light field of a high-finesse optical cavity. When an atom is detected in the cavity, the laser light pumping the cavity is suddenly switched to a higher value. This increases the depth of the optical dipole potential and traps the atom in the cavity field.
In this thesis a single atom is trapped in the mode of a high-finesse cavity and used to generate single photons in a controlled way. Starting from a magneto-optical trap, rubidium atoms are loaded into an optical dipole-force trap and transported to the cavity. On arrival the atoms are trapped in another trap with a standing wave geometry and excited by a pump laser incident perpendicular to the cavity axis. With the help of cavity cooling forces, a single atom could then be selected and trapped for up to a minute. A sequence of laser pulses is applied to induce the emission of a stream of single photons from the atom. Up to 300000 photons could be generated from the same atom in this way. The single-photon character of the source is verified within a few seconds after which the photons can be distributed to an independent user while monitoring the presence of the atom.
Two recent experiments are discussed which demonstrate real-time trapping and monitoring of single atoms within a high-finesse optical resonator. A single atom moving within the resonator generates large variations in the transmission of a weak probe laser, which are recorded in real time. These cavity QED signals are used to trigger ON a confining potential to trap the atom. In the first experiment, the confining potential is provided by the single-photon forces associated with the cavity QED interaction. An inversion algorithm allows individual atom trajectories to be reconstructed from the record of cavity transmission, and reveals single atoms bound in orbit by the mechanical forces associated with single photons. In a second experiment, an additional classical standing-wave dipole trap provides the trapping, enabling a 28 ms trap lifetime for single strongly coupled atoms.