Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 45: Ultracold atoms and molecules I

Q 45.2: Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 14:15–14:30, DO26 208

Atom-light Quantum Interface Based on Nanofiber Traps — •Eva Bookjans, Jean-Baptiste Béguin, Stefan L. Christensen, Heidi L. Sørensen, Jörg H. Müller, Jürgen Appel, and Eugene S. Polzik — Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University, Denmark

We report on our experimental progress towards coupling ultra-cold atoms to a tapered optical nanofiber with a subwavelength diameter. The strong coupling between the guided light mode of a tapered optical nanofiber and atoms close to the fiber surface make it an ideal system not only for trapping, manipulating, probing, and detecting atoms but also for interfacing distant quantum systems. Laser-cooled Cesium atoms are trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice potential along the fiber, which is created by the evanescent field of a far red-detuned standing wave (1064 nm) and far blue-detuned (780 nm) light [1]. We will present a dispersive dual-color interferometric probing scheme, which we will implement in order to perform projection noise limited quantum-non demolition (QND) measurements of the quantum state of the trapped Cesium atoms [2,3]. The ultimate objective of the presented research is to take advantage of the unique properties of an atom-nanofiber trap and to engineer and characterize nontrivial quantum states in few atom ensembles using QND coupling to light and photon counting measurements.

[1] E. Vetsch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 203603 (2010)

[2] J. Appel et al., PNAS 106, 10960 (2009)

[3] J. Lodewyck et al., Phys. Rev. A 79, 061401 (2009)