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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America

Composite structure for two-state atoms in an optical cavity

M. G. Raizen, R. J. Brecha, R. J. Thompson, Harry J. Kimble

Published Jan 1, 1988• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Experimental and theoretical investigations of the radiative processes of a collection of two-state atoms contained in a high-finesse optical cavity are reported. To make contact with previous work on this subject, we consider the usual regimens in which either the cavity or the atomic damping is dominant. However, of greater interest and relevance to our experiments is the regime of strong coupling that generates splittings and new features in the normal-mode structure of the composite atom-field system. We identify possible mechanisms for producing line shapes with subnatural linewidths. Our experimental investigations are conducted with two-state sodium atoms that interact with a single mode of an ultra-high-finesse optical cavity. The incoherent spectral density of the transmitted field is detected by optical heterodyne. We obtain good qualitative agreement between theory and experiment for the general features of the composite atom-field system as manifested in the spectral density of the transmitted field. Experiments to probe the response of the system to weak modulation of the incident field are in progress.

DOI
10.1364/oam.1988.ms1

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Experimental and theoretical investigations of the radiative processes of a collection of two-state atoms contained in a high-finesse optical cavity are reported. To make contact with previous work on this subject, we consider the usual regimens in which either the cavity or the atomic damping is dominant. However, of greater interest and relevance to our experiments is the regime of strong coupling that generates splittings and new features in the normal-mode structure of the composite atom-field system. We identify possible mechanisms for producing line shapes with subnatural linewidths. Our experimental investigations are conducted with two-state sodium atoms that interact with a single mode of an ultra-high-finesse optical cavity. The incoherent spectral density of the transmitted field is detected by optical heterodyne. We obtain good qualitative agreement between theory and experiment for the general features of the composite atom-field system as manifested in the spectral density of the transmitted field. Experiments to probe the response of the system to weak modulation of the incident field are in progress.
Investigations of the radiative processes for the composite system of N two-state atoms coupled to the field of a high finesse optical cavity are reported. In an experiment employing an atomic beam of optically prepared sodium atoms (3S1/2, F = 2, mF = 2 → 3P3/2, F = 3, mF = 3 transition at 589 nm), we make direct spectroscopic measurements of the normal mode splitting for the coupled oscillator system of atoms and cavity field over a 20 ≤ N ≤ 600 range. Linewidth reduction below the atomic free-space width is observed and results from dynamic linewidth averaging due to the strong coherent interaction of atoms and cavity. The dependence of the normalmode structure on atom-cavity detuning is explored, and the decoupling of the system with detuning is described. A second experimental program employs a cesium atomic beam (6S1/2, F = 4, mF = 4 → 6P3/2, F = 5, mF = 5 transition at 852 nm), for which the single-atom coupling coefficient can be made larger than the free-space atomic and cavity damping rates. Our initial efforts are directed both toward the investigation of the spectroscopic properties of this system and toward the observation of photon antibunching for the field transmitted from the cavity. More generally our measurements of intensity correlations can be applied to the problem of continuous quantum measurement for a dissipative system.
Of fundamental importance in quantum optics has been the investigation of the radiative coupling of a collection of atoms to the field of a resonant cavity1. Within this context we are conducting a research program to investigate the interaction of optically prepared two-state atoms with the fields of high finesse optical cavities. With regard to our specific observations, we have employed a sodium atomic beam apparatus to make direct spectroscopic measurements of the normal-mode splitting for the coupled oscillator system formed by the collective atomic polarization of N two-state atoms and a single mode of a resonator of finesse of approximately 2x10⁴. At the transition wavelength of 589 nm (³, S_(1/2), F = 2, m_F = 2→3 P_(3/2), m_F = 3 and for one of our spherical mirror standing-wave cavities, the relevant parameters for the system are as follows: transverse atomic decay rate γ_⊥ = 2πX5X10⁶/S, cavity damping rate K/γ⊥= 0.18, and single-atom coupling coefficient g/γ_⊥ = 0.2.
For the most part, quantum statistical processes in quantum optics are investigated in a weak-coupling regime, but it has become possible recently to realize experimentally optical systems for which the internal coupling coefficient g is comparable to the external dissipative rates. Within, this context, the subject of our investigation is the quantum dynamical processes for a small collection of N two-state atoms strongly coupled to a single mode of a high-finesse optical cavity. For this system, we record input-output characteristics for steady-state operation with 3 ⪝ N ⪝ 65 intracavity atoms and observe optical bistability for N⪞15 atoms.1
A tutorial review is given on recent experiments performed with 1 ⩽ N ⩽ 110 atoms in a microscopic high-finesse optical cavity. The resonator has length 1 mm and finesse 80 000. The radiative properties of the strongly coupled atom-cavity system differ from those of the individual components. For example, spontaneous emission is reversible, the first excited state of the composite system splits into two levels and the intensity fluctuations of the light transmitted by the resonator are nonclassical. We observe photon-antibunching and sub-Poissonian photon statistics. In terms of practical applications, the system renders possible ( i ) the detection of single atoms with high sensitivity and ( ii ) optical bistability for a few atoms and photons only.