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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 32: Poster: Quantum gases, ultracold atoms and molecules

Q 32.72: Poster

Mittwoch, 19. März 2014, 16:30–18:30, Spree-Palais

Flourescence imaging and sub-micrometer localization of a single atom strongly coupled to a cavity — •Ingmari Christa Tietje, Anna Caroline Eckl, Haytham Chibani, Christoph Hamsen, Paul Altin, Tatjana Wilk, and Gerhard Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Straße 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany

A single two-level atom strongly coupled to a single mode of the electro-magnetic field inside a Fabry-Perot cavity is a paradigm of fundamental matter-light interaction. To observe strong coupling we localized the atom in regions of high intensity with a standing-wave intra-cavity dipole trap and, in the past, evaluated only the photons escaping from the cavity.

We can now additionally image the atomic fluorescence light emitted into free-space to measure the atom’s position along the cavity axis with a newly built imaging system. We obtain time-resolved sequences of images whose intensity distributions exhibit direct proof of strong coupling and its position dependence between atom and cavity along the standing-wave dipole trap. Counterintuitively, in regions of highest coupling strength g the rate of spontaneously emitted photons is lower than in regions of intermediate coupling strength. Moreover, we took movies of the atom hopping along the cavity axis.

Since the coupling strength g is position dependent, the movement of the atom effectively reduces g. To overcome this problem we now introduce a three-dimensional dipole trap which pins down the atom to the sub-micrometer level and localizes it well within the cavity mode.