München 2004 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 38: Poster Fallen und Kühlung

Q 38.8: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2004, 14:00–16:00, Schellingstr. 3

Continued Observation and Absolute Position Control of Single Neutral Atoms — •Mkrtych Khudaverdyan, Dominik Schrader, Yevhen Miroshnychenko, Igor Dotsenko, Wolfgang Alt, Stefan Kuhr, Wenjamin Rosenfeld, Arno Rauschenbeutel, and Dieter Meschede — Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstr. 8, Bonn, 53115

Using an intensified CCD camera we spatially resolve Caesium atoms, confined to the potential wells of a standing wave optical dipole trap with diffraction limited resolution. The atoms are illuminated by a red-detuned optical molasses, which induces the fluorescence light and cools the atoms at the same time. Using this technique, we have continuously imaged the controlled motion of a single atom as well as of a small number of distinguishable atoms with observation times exceeding one minute [1].

The absolute position of an atom can be controlled using our optical conveyor belt [2, 3] in combination with a feedback loop. The initial position of the atom in the dipole trap is determined using the intensified CCD camera. Then, the atom is transported to the desired target position with sub-micrometer precision. The current precision of the position feedback is 400 nm and is determined by the resolution of the atom in the dipole trap. This position control is an important prerequisite for introducing atoms into an optical resonator, which will enable controlled interaction between two or more atoms.

[1] Y.Miroshnychenko et al., Optics Express (in print)

[2] S. Kuhr et al., Science 293, 278 (2001)

[3] D. Schrader et al., Appl. Phys B 73, 819 (2001)