Osnabrück 2002 – scientific programme
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Q: Quantenoptik
Q 413: Quanteneffekte III
Q 413.1: Talk
Thursday, March 7, 2002, 14:00–14:15, HS 01/E02
Atomic transits through higher-order cavity modes — •T. Puppe, T. Fischer, P. Maunz, PWH. Pinkse und G. Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching
In the strong-coupling limit a single atom can strongly influence the light transmitted through a high-finesse cavity [1]. For appropriately chosen parameters a measurement of the cavity transmittance can be used to obtain information on the position of the atom. A cylindrically symmetric TEM00 mode will allow one to derive the radial distance to the center of the mode only. More position information can be obtained from the higher-order transverse modes due to their transversal structure. For quasi-degenerate sets of higher-order modes the coupling to an atom will break the symmetry leading to an characteristic output pattern [2]. However, mirror imperfections lift the degeneracy of the higher-order transverse modes of a single manifold. The resulting splitting can be exploited to obtain position information by switching the laser frequency rapidly between different modes and monitoring the respective transmittances. First experimental results are reported. The capability of this scheme is analyzed using simulated trajectories. Assuming a Poissonian distribution of transmitted photons we derive a probability distribution pattern for the position of the atom in the transversal plane.
[1] C.J. Hood, T.W. Lynn, A.C. Doherty, A.S. Parkins, and H.J. Kimble Science 287, 1447-1453 (2000); P.W.H. Pinkse, T. Fischer, P. Maunz, and G. Rempe, Nature 404, 365-368 (2000).
[2] P. Horak, H. Ritsch, T. Fischer, P. Maunz, T. Puppe, P.W.H. Pinkse, and G. Rempe, Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press).