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AIP conference proceedings

‘‘Quantum jumps’’ observed in the fluorescence of a single ion

Thilo Sauter, R. Blatt, Werner Neuhauser, P. E. Toschek

Published Jan 1, 1987• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrated interruptions of macroscopic duration in a single trapped and cooled Ba+ ions’s 493‐nm fluorescence. They are caused by transitions of the ion into the ‘‘dark’’ 2D5/2 state.—Multiple simultaneous jumps of three ions indicate cooperative interaction with the light.
DOI
10.1063/1.36788

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We briefly discuss the preparation of a single cold ion in an rf trap, and the concept of "quantum jumps" which requires a single atomic particle for verification. Recent corresponding experiments have demonstrated interruptions of the laser-excited resonance fluorescence, which are the signature of the particles performing quantum jumps to and from a metastable level, under weak excitation of the corresponding transition. The time density of the jumps obeys a Poissonian distribution in agreement with theoretical models. With three trapped ions, the high rate of multiple jumps suggests the presence of collective interaction.
Introduction The quantum theory of atoms and molecules had its origin in the famous 1913 paper of Bohr [186] in which he suggested that the interaction of radiation and atoms occurred with the transition of an atom from one stationary internal state to another, accompanied by the emission or absorption of radiation of a frequency determined by the energy difference between these states. These transitions came to be known as ‘quantum jumps’. Since all experiments until the late 1970s used to be carried out with large ensembles of atoms and molecules, these jumps were masked and could not be directly observed; they were only inferred from spectroscopic data. In fact, with the advent of quantum mechanics they eventually came to be regarded as artefacts of Bohr's simple-minded semi-classical model. But with the availability of coherent light sources and single ions prepared in ion traps [187], [188], and optically cooled [189], [190], the issue has been reopened with the experimental demonstration of quantum jumps in single ions [191], [192], [193]. These experiments have also opened up the contentious issue of wave function collapse or reduction on measurement, as they can be regarded as making collapse visible on the oscilloscope screen [191]. Evidence of the discrete nature of quantum transitions in a single quantum system had been accumulating from the observation of photon anti-bunching in single-atom resonance fluorescence [194], the tunneling of single electrons in metal–oxide-–semiconductor junctions [195] and spin-flips of individual electrons in a Penning trap [196].
We experimentally investigate the resonance fluorescence spectrum of single 171Yb{}^{171}\mathrm{Yb}171Yb and 172Yb{}^{172}\mathrm{Yb}172Yb ions that are laser cooled to the Lamb-Dicke regime in a radiofrequency trap. While the fluorescence scattering of 172Yb{}^{172}\mathrm{Yb}172Yb is continuous, the 171Yb{}^{171}\mathrm{Yb}171Yb fluorescence is interrupted by quantum jumps because a nonvanishing rate of spontaneous transitions leads to electron shelving in the metastable hyperfine sublevel 2D3/2(F=2).{}^{2}{D}_{3/2}(F=2).2D3/2​(F=2). The average duration of the resulting dark periods can be varied by changing the intensity of a repumping laser field. Optical heterodyne detection is employed to analyze the fluorescence spectrum near the Rayleigh elastic scattering peak. It is found that the stochastic modulation of the fluorescence emission by quantum jumps gives rise to a Lorentzian component in the fluorescence spectrum, and that the linewidth of this component varies according to the average duration of the dark fluorescence periods. The experimental observations are in quantitative agreement with theoretical predictions.
One of the experiments made possible by the trapping and cooling of a single atom is to observe the quantum jumps to a metastable state in the atom by monitoring the resonance fluorescence of a strong transition in which at least one of the states is coupled to the metastable state. When the atomic electron moves to the metastable state, the fluorescence from the strongly driven transition disappears. When the electron drops back into the strongly driven transition, the fluorescence abruptly returns. Statistical analysis of these random interruptions to the fluorescence signal implies photon antibunching in the emission of the weak photon.