Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 11: Quanteneffekte (QED)
Q 11.1: Group Report
Monday, March 19, 2007, 14:00–14:30, 5E
Observing the quantum jumps of light: birth and death of a photon in a cavity — •Stefan Kuhr1,2, Sébastien Gleyzes2, Christine Guerlin2, Julien Bernu2, Ulrich Hoff2, Michel Brune2, Jean-Michel Raimond2, and Serge Haroche2,3 — 1Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Staudingerweg 7, D-55128 Mainz — 2LKB, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05 — 3Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05
A microscopic system under continuous observation exhibits at random times sudden jumps between its states. Quantum jumps of trapped massive particles (electrons, ions or molecules) have already been observed, which is not the case of the jumps of light quanta. Here we report on the first observation of photon number quantum jumps [1]. Microwave photons are stored in a superconducting cavity for times in the second range [2]. They are repeatedly probed by a stream of nonabsorbing atoms. An atom interferometer measures the atomic dipole phase shift induced by the non-resonant cavity field, so that the final atom state reveals directly the presence of a single photon in the cavity. Sequences of hundreds of atoms highly correlated in the same state, are interrupted by sudden state-switchings. These telegraphic signals record, for the first time, the birth, life and death of individual photons.
[1] S. Gleyzes et al., Nature (to be published), quant-ph/0612031.
[2] S. Kuhr et al., quant-ph/0612138.