Berlin 2001 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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Q: Quantenoptik

Q 3: Atom Optics I

Q 3.5: Vortrag

Montag, 2. April 2001, 16:45–17:00, H 104

The atomic kaleidoscope — •Thomas Fischer¹, Peter Maunz¹, Thomas Puppe¹, Pepijn Pinkse¹, Gerhard Rempe¹, Peter Horak², Peter Domokos², and Helmut Ritsch² — ¹Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany — ²Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Innbruck, Technikerstr. 25, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

In recent years, the observation of single cold atoms in a high-finesse cavity has become possible [1,2]. Position information is obtained, as the transmission of the cavity is a direct measure for the coupling of the atom to the known spatial mode of the light field. With suitable assumptions about the starting position and direction, it seems possible to reconstruct the atomic trajectory [2]. Here we will present a new idea for a more direct approach to track a particle in a high-finesse cavity. It relies on several degenerate modes of the cavity, e.g. higher-order Hermite-Gaussian modes. Somewhat resembling a toy kaleidoscope, the symmetry of the mode pattern will be affected and altered by the particle. By imaging the light which is transmitted by the cavity onto a camera, it should be possible to monitor the position of the atom directly.

[1] P.W.H. Pinkse, T. Fischer, P. Maunz, and G. Rempe, Nature 404, 365 (2000)

[2] C.J. Hood, T.W. Lynn, A.C. Doherty, A.S. Parkins, and H.J. Kimble, Science 287, 1447 (2000)