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arXiv:quant-ph/0506088 · Physical Review Letters

Submicron Positioning of Single Atoms in a Microcavity

S. Nußmann, M. Hijlkema, B. Weber, Felix Rohde, Gerhard Rempe, Axel Kuhn

Published Oct 19, 2005• 147 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The coupling of individual atoms to a high-finesse optical cavity is precisely controlled and adjusted using a standing-wave dipole-force trap, a challenge for strong atom-cavity coupling. Ultracold Rubidium atoms are first loaded into potential minima of the dipole trap in the center of the cavity. Then we use the trap as a conveyor belt that we set into motion perpendicular to the cavity axis. This allows us to repetitively move atoms out of and back into the cavity mode with a repositioning precision of 135 nm. This makes it possible to either selectively address one atom of a string of atoms by the cavity, or to simultaneously couple two precisely separated atoms to a higher mode of the cavity.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.95.173602

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The coupling of individual atoms to a high-finesse optical cavity is precisely controlled and adjusted using a standing-wave dipole-force trap, a challenge for strong atom-cavity coupling. Ultracold Rubidium atoms are first loaded into potential minima of the dipole trap in the center of the cavity. Then we use the trap as a conveyor belt that we set into motion perpendicular to the cavity axis. This allows us to repetitively move atoms out of and back into the cavity mode with a repositioning precision of 135 nm. This makes it possible to either selectively address one atom of a string of atoms by the cavity, or to simultaneously couple two precisely separated atoms to a higher mode of the cavity.
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.
Cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED) describes electromagnetic fields in a confined space and the radiative properties of atoms in such fields. The simplest example of such system is a single atom interacting with one mode of a high-finesse resonator. Besides observation and exploration of fundamental quantum mechanical effects, this system bears a high potential for applications quantum information science such as, e.g., quantum logic gates, quantum communication and quantum teleportation. In this thesis I present an experiment on the deterministic coupling of a single neutral atom to the mode of a high-finesse optical resonator. In Chapter 1 I describe our basic techniques for trapping and observing single cesium atoms. As a source of single atoms we use a high-gradient magneto-optical trap, which captures the atoms from background gas in a vacuum chamber and cools them down to millikelvin temperatures. The atoms are then transferred without loss into a standing-wave dipole trap, which provides a conservative potential required for experiments on atomic coherence such as quantum information processing and metrology on trapped atoms. Moreover, shifting the standing-wave pattern allows us to deterministically transport the atoms (Chapter 2). In combination with non-destructive fluorescence imaging of individual trapped atoms, this enables us to control their position with submicrometer precision over several millimeters along the dipole trap. The cavity QED system can distinctly display quantum behaviour in the so-called strong coupling regime, i.e., when the coherent atom-cavity coupling rate dominates dissipation in the system. This sets the main requirements on the resonator's properties: small mode volume and high finesse. Chapter 3 is devoted to the manufacturing, assembling, and testing of an ultra-high finesse optical Fabry-Perot resonator, stabilized to the atomic transition. In Chapter 4 I present the transportation of single atoms into the cavity and their coupling to the cavity mode. The strong coupling manifests itself in a strong reduction of the cavity transmission probed by a weak external laser. The atoms remain trapped and coupled to the cavity mode for several seconds until we move them out of the cavity for final analysis of their number and position.
Entangled quantum states have applications as a model system for strongly correlated many body states, as resource for quantum information processing and as a tool for enhanced precision measurements. Deterministic entanglement schemes create the desired state by transferring the system under the action of a carefully chosen Hamiltonian into an entangled state. The system must follow a unitary evolution, and uncontrolled parasitic interactions with the environment leading to spontaneous decay or partial measurements of the state have to be avoided. The paper present an experiment, on loading a chosen number of Doppler-cooled caesium atoms from a magneto-optical trap into a standing wave optical dipole trap. The positions of the individual atoms are then determined with sub-micrometer precision, enabling to prepare, to manipulate and to read out the quantum state of each atom. Using the dipole trap as an optical conveyor belt, the atoms are transported into the mode of a high-finesse optical cavity.