17 research outputs found
Motional sidebands and direct measurement of the cooling rate in the resonance fluorescence of a single trapped ion
Resonance fluorescence of a single trapped ion is spectrally analyzed using a
heterodyne technique. Motional sidebands due to the oscillation of the ion in
the harmonic trap potential are observed in the fluorescence spectrum. From the
width of the sidebands the cooling rate is obtained and found to be in
agreement with the theoretical prediction.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Final version after minor changes, 1 figure
replaced; to be published in PRL, July 10, 200
Nonclassical Interference Effects In The Radiation From Coherently Driven Uncorrelated Atoms
We demonstrate the existence of new nonclassical correlations in the
radiation of two atoms, which are coherently driven by a continuous laser
source. The photon-photon-correlations of the fluorescence light show a spatial
interferene pattern not present in a classical treatment. A feature of the new
phenomenon is, that bunched and antibunched light is emitted in different
spatial directions. The calculations are performed analytically. It is pointed
out, that the correlations are induced by state reduction due to the
measurement process when the detection of the photons does not distinguish
between the atoms. It is interesting to note, that the phenomena show up even
without any interatomic interaction.Comment: 4 pages, 6 Figure
Active laser frequency stabilization using neutral praseodymium (Pr)
We present a new possibility for the active frequency stabilization of a
laser using transitions in neutral praseodymium. Because of its five outer
electrons, this element shows a high density of energy levels leading to an
extremely line-rich excitation spectrum with more than 25000 known spectral
lines ranging from the UV to the infrared. We demonstrate the active frequency
stabilization of a diode laser on several praseodymium lines between 1105 and
1123 nm. The excitation signals were recorded in a hollow cathode lamp and
observed via laser-induced fluorescence. These signals are strong enough to
lock the diode laser onto most of the lines by using standard laser locking
techniques. In this way, the frequency drifts of the unlocked laser of more
than 30 MHz/h were eliminated and the laser frequency stabilized to within
1.4(1) MHz for averaging times >0.2 s. Frequency quadrupling the stabilized
diode laser can produce frequency-stable UV-light in the range from 276 to 281
nm. In particular, using a strong hyperfine component of the praseodymium
excitation line E = 16 502.616_7/2 cm^-1 -> E' = 25 442.742_9/2 cm^-1 at lambda
= 1118.5397(4) nm makes it possible - after frequency quadruplication - to
produce laser radiation at lambda/4 = 279.6349(1) nm, which can be used to
excite the D2 line in Mg^+.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figure
Resonance fluorescence of a trapped three-level atom
We investigate theoretically the spectrum of resonance fluorescence of a
harmonically trapped atom, whose internal transitions are --shaped and
driven at two-photon resonance by a pair of lasers, which cool the
center--of--mass motion. For this configuration, photons are scattered only due
to the mechanical effects of the quantum interaction between light and atom. We
study the spectrum of emission in the final stage of laser--cooling, when the
atomic center-of-mass dynamics is quantum mechanical and the size of the wave
packet is much smaller than the laser wavelength (Lamb--Dicke limit). We use
the spectral decomposition of the Liouville operator of the master equation for
the atomic density matrix and apply second order perturbation theory. We find
that the spectrum of resonance fluorescence is composed by two narrow sidebands
-- the Stokes and anti-Stokes components of the scattered light -- while all
other signals are in general orders of magnitude smaller. For very low
temperatures, however, the Mollow--type inelastic component of the spectrum
becomes visible. This exhibits novel features which allow further insight into
the quantum dynamics of the system. We provide a physical model that interprets
our results and discuss how one can recover temperature and cooling rate of the
atom from the spectrum. The behaviour of the considered system is compared with
the resonance fluorescence of a trapped atom whose internal transition consists
of two-levels.Comment: 11 pages, 4 Figure
Complementarity and Young's interference fringes from two atoms
The interference pattern of the resonance fluorescence from a J=1/2 to J=1/2
transition of two identical atoms confined in a three-dimensional harmonic
potential is calculated. Thermal motion of the atoms is included. Agreement is
obtained with experiments [Eichmann et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2359 (1993)].
Contrary to some theoretical predictions, but in agreement with the present
calculations, a fringe visibility greater than 50% can be observed with
polarization-selective detection. The dependence of the fringe visibility on
polarization has a simple interpretation, based on whether or not it is
possible in principle to determine which atom emitted the photon.Comment: 12 pages, including 7 EPS figures, RevTex. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Narrow Spectral Feature In Resonance Fluorescence With A Single Monochromatic Laser Field
We describe the resonance fluorescence spectrum of an atomic three-level
system where two of the states are coupled by a single monochromatic laser
field. The influence of the third energy level, which interacts with the two
laser-coupled states only via radiative decays, is studied in detail. For a
suitable choice of parameters, this system gives rise to a very narrow
structure at the laser frequency in the fluorescence spectrum which is not
present in the spectrum of a two-level atom. We find those parameter ranges by
a numerical analysis and use the results to derive analytical expressions for
the additional narrow peak. We also derive an exact expression for the peak
intensity under the assumption that a random telegraph model is applicable to
the system. This model and a simple spring model are then used to describe the
physical origins of the additional peak. Using these results, we explain the
connection between our system, a three-level system in V-configuration where
both transitions are laser driven, and a related experiment which was recently
reported.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, extension of the spring mode
Efficient coupling of photons to a single molecule and the observation of its resonance fluorescence
Single dye molecules at cryogenic temperatures display many spectroscopic
phenomena known from free atoms and are thus promising candidates for
fundamental quantum optical studies. However, the existing techniques for the
detection of single molecules have either sacrificed the information on the
coherence of the excited state or have been inefficient. Here we show that
these problems can be addressed by focusing the excitation light near to the
absorption cross section of a molecule. Our detection scheme allows us to
explore resonance fluorescence over 9 orders of magnitude of excitation
intensity and to separate its coherent and incoherent parts. In the strong
excitation regime, we demonstrate the first observation of the Mollow triplet
from a single solid-state emitter. Under weak excitation we report the
detection of a single molecule with an incident power as faint as 150 attoWatt,
paving the way for studying nonlinear effects with only a few photons.Comment: 6 figure
Phase-locked indistinguishable photons with synthesized waveforms from a solid-state source
Resonance fluorescence in the Heitler regime provides access to single
photons with coherence well beyond the Fourier transform limit of the
transition, and holds the promise to circumvent environment-induced dephasing
common to all solid-state systems. Here we demonstrate that the coherently
generated single photons from a single self-assembled InAs quantum dot display
mutual coherence with the excitation laser on a timescale exceeding 3 seconds.
Exploiting this degree of mutual coherence we synthesize near-arbitrary
coherent photon waveforms by shaping the excitation laser field. In contrast to
post-emission filtering, our technique avoids both photon loss and degradation
of the single photon nature for all synthesized waveforms. By engineering
pulsed waveforms of single photons, we further demonstrate that separate
photons generated coherently by the same laser field are fundamentally
indistinguishable, lending themselves to creation of distant entanglement
through quantum interference.Comment: Additional data and analysis in PDF format is available for download
at the publications section of our website:
http://www.amop.phy.cam.ac.uk/amop-ma
Quadrature squeezed photons from a two-level system.
Resonance fluorescence arises from the interaction of an optical field with a two-level system, and has played a fundamental role in the development of quantum optics and its applications. Despite its conceptual simplicity, it entails a wide range of intriguing phenomena, such as the Mollow-triplet emission spectrum, photon antibunching and coherent photon emission. One fundamental aspect of resonance fluorescence--squeezing in the form of reduced quantum fluctuations in the single photon stream from an atom in free space--was predicted more than 30 years ago. However, the requirement to operate in the weak excitation regime, together with the combination of modest oscillator strength of atoms and low collection efficiencies, has continued to necessitate stringent experimental conditions for the observation of squeezing with atoms. Attempts to circumvent these issues had to sacrifice antibunching, owing to either stimulated forward scattering from atomic ensembles or multi-photon transitions inside optical cavities. Here, we use an artificial atom with a large optical dipole enabling 100-fold improvement of the photon detection rate over the natural atom counterpart and reach the necessary conditions for the observation of quadrature squeezing in single resonance-fluorescence photons. By implementing phase-dependent homodyne intensity-correlation detection, we demonstrate that the electric field quadrature variance of resonance fluorescence is three per cent below the fundamental limit set by vacuum fluctuations, while the photon statistics remain antibunched. The presence of squeezing and antibunching simultaneously is a fully non-classical outcome of the wave-particle duality of photons.We acknowledge financial support from the University of Cambridge, the European Research Council ERC Consolidator Grant Agreement No. 617985 and the EU-FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network S3NANO. C.M. acknowledges Clare College Cambridge for financial support through a Junior Research Fellowship.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature1486