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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 50: Poster Ultrakalte Atome

Q 50.22: Poster

Thursday, March 13, 2008, 16:30–19:00, Poster C2

Measuring the coupling strength of single atoms to the field of a high-finesse optical resonator — •Tobias Kampschulte, Wolfgang Alt, Mkrtych Khudaverdyan, Karim Lenhard, Sebastian Reick, Karsten Schörner, and Dieter Meschede — Institut für Angewandte Physik, Wegelerstr. 8, D-53115 Bonn

Cavity QED experiments provide unique possibilities for studying atom-photon interactions at a fundamental level. In our experiment we investigate the coupling of a small number of neutral caesium atoms to the mode of a high-finesse optical cavity (F=10⁶).
Using a number-triggered loading process we transfer a predetermined number of atoms, ranging from a single atom to several atoms, from a magneto-optical trap into a standing wave dipole trap. Subsequently, the atoms are transported into the center of the cavity mode with sub-micrometer precision using the dipole trap as an optical conveyor belt.
Of fundamental importance for the implementation of any controlled atom-cavity interaction is the knowledge of the atom-cavity coupling strength g(r^→). It is equivalent to the energy splitting of the cavity mode when an atom is present. The splitting can be measured by taking a transmission spectrum of a weak probe laser beam going through the cavity. A different approach is the detection of the change of the atomic state induced by the probe laser when it is resonant with a mode of the coupled atom-cavity system.
The controlled and deterministic coupling of single atoms to the mode of a cavity is an important step towards cavity-enhanced atom-atom interaction, a basic ingredient of quantum information processing.