Hannover 2003 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik

Q 9: Quanteneffekte 1

Q 9.6: Talk

Monday, March 24, 2003, 15:15–15:30, F107

Vacuum-field level shifts in a single atom mediated by a single distant mirror — •Jürgen Eschner, Alex Wilson, Pavel Bouchev, Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler, Christoph Becher, and Rainer Blatt — Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck

It has been shown in [1] that a single distant mirror, adjusted to retro-reflect the resonance fluorescence of a single trapped laser-driven Ba⁺ ion, causes enhanced and inhibited spontaneous decay of the excited P_1/2 state. In a new experiment we also observe the corresponding energy shift of the decaying level, i.e. the Lamb shift induced by the mirror. We describe the dissipative and dispersive effect of the mirror on the Ba⁺ ion by an 8-level Bloch equation model, adjusted for the presence of the mirror according to the theory in [2]. Good agreement is found between the measured data and the calculations.

We also observe that at certain ratios of the laser intensities driving the S_1/2 to P_1/2 and D_3/2 to P_1/2 transitions, the effect of the mirror on the P_1/2 state population vanishes, and the dispersive effect changes sign. This feature is a consequence of the multi-level structure of the Ba⁺ ion and arises through an interplay of modified decay and optical pumping.

[1] J. Eschner et al., Nature 413, 495 (2001).

[2] U. Dorner and P. Zoller, Phys. Rev. A 66, 023816 (2002).