Laser cooling of trapped ions in the quantum regime

Journal Article · Sat May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · Bulletin of the American Physical Society

OSTI ID:281467

Bergquist, J C ^[1]

---

1. National Inst. of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO (United States)

Laser-cooling of bound particles to the regime where the quantized vibrational energy of motion (n + 1/2)h{omega}{sub v} is characterized by < n > {<=} 1 has been achieved for electromagnetically trapped ions and, recently, for radiatively-bound neutrals. In this limit, certain quantum features of the trapped particles can be readily explored and measured. I will describe an experiment in which the kinetic energy of a single trapped ion was reduced by the method of optical sideband cooling to the quantum ground state of motion. At the zero-point energy (n = 0), it is possible to detect the absorbtion of a single quantum of vibrational energy, and it should be possible to generate squeezed states of particle motion. I will also discuss a recent experiment that detected the interference in the light scattered from two laser-cooled ions that were confined in a linear Paul trap. Although many features of our experiment are analogous to Young`s classic two-slit experiment, there are notable differences. Polarization-sensitive detection can selectively reveal either the particle-nature or the wave-nature of the scattered light. Measurements of the fringe contrast as a function of the saturation of the atomic transition are expected to confirm the relative decrease in the coherent component of resonance fluorescence as the incident light field intensity is increased.

• OSTI ID: 281467
• Report Number(s): CONF-9305421--
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Physical Society Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 38; ISSN 0003-0503; ISSN BAPSA6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
COOLING
GROUND STATES
IONS
LASER RADIATION
LIGHT SCATTERING
RESONANCE FLUORESCENCE
TRAPS
VIBRATIONAL STATES