6 research outputs found
Spontaneous emission of an atom in front of a mirror
Motivated by a recent experiment [J. Eschner {\it et al.}, Nature {\bf 413},
495 (2001)], we now present a theoretical study on the fluorescence of an atom
in front of a mirror. On the assumption that the presence of the distant mirror
and a lens imposes boundary conditions on the electric field in a plane close
to the atom, we derive the intensities of the emitted light as a function of an
effective atom-mirror distance. The results obtained are in good agreement with
the experimental findings.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, revised version, references adde
Vacuum-stimulated cooling of single atoms in three dimensions
Taming quantum dynamical processes is the key to novel applications of
quantum physics, e.g. in quantum information science. The control of
light-matter interactions at the single-atom and single-photon level can be
achieved in cavity quantum electrodynamics, in particular in the regime of
strong coupling where atom and cavity form a single entity. In the optical
domain, this requires permanent trapping and cooling of an atom in a
micro-cavity. We have now realized three-dimensional cavity cooling and
trapping for an orthogonal arrangement of cooling laser, trap laser and cavity
vacuum. This leads to average single-atom trapping times exceeding 15 seconds,
unprecedented for a strongly coupled atom under permanent observation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure