Berlin 2005 – scientific programme
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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 21: Poster Quanteneffekte
Q 21.12: Poster
Monday, March 7, 2005, 11:00–12:30, Poster HU
High-precision measurement of atomic lifetimes and Cavity-QED with single trapped Ca+-Ions — •Carlos Russo1, Christoph Becher1, Axel Kreuter1, Gavin Lancaster1, Andreas Mundt1, Hartmut Häffner1, Christian Roos1, Wolfgang Hänsel1, Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler1,2, and Rainer Blatt1,3 — 1Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria — 2Abteilung Quanten-Informationsverarbeitung, Albert Einstein Allee 11, Universität Ulm, D-89069 Ulm — 3Institut für Quantenoptik und Quanteninformation, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
We report on measurements of the lifetimes of the 3d 2D5/2 and 3d 2D3/2 metastable states of a single laser-cooled 40Ca+ ion in a linear Paul trap. We introduce a new measurement technique based on high-efficiency quantum state detection after coherent excitation to the D5/2 state or incoherent shelving in the D3/2 state, and subsequent free, unperturbed spontaneous decay. The result for the natural lifetime of the D5/2 state of 1168(9) ms agrees excellently with the most precise published value. The lifetime of the D3/2 state is measured with a single ion for the first time and yields 1176(11) ms which improves the statistical uncertainty of previous results by a factor of four.
Coupling of the single Ca+ ion to a high finesse optical cavity allows for the realization of cavity-QED experiments towards the deterministic generation of single photons. We will report on the status of these experiments.