Berlin 2001 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

Q: Quantenoptik

Q 25: Quantum Effects II

Q 25.1: Talk

Thursday, April 5, 2001, 15:45–16:00, H 3010

Single trapped ions interfering with their mirror images — •Jürgen Eschner, Christoph Raab, Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler, and Rainer Blatt — Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, AUSTRIA

By retroreflecting the fluorescence of a single trapped Ba⁺ ion with a high-quality lens and a mirror 25 cm away, we observe high-contrast interference fringes as the mirror distance varies. By simultaneous observation of the light transmitted through the mirror we find that the population of the upper level is changing in anticorrelation with the interference fringes, which indicates that we observe genuine inhibition and enhancement of the ion’s spontaneous emission with more than 70% visibility. When two ions are trapped, they can be made to interfere with each other’s mirror images. In this case we observe fringes with 5% visibility which indicate super- and subradiance mediated by the distant mirror.