Free-Space Lossless State Detection of a Single Trapped Atom

Journal Article · Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.106.133003· OSTI ID:21550258

Fuhrmanek, A; Bourgain, R; Sortais, Y R. P.; Browaeys, A ^[1]

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1. Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Sud, Campus Polytechnique, 2 avenue Augustin Fresnel, RD 128, 91127 Palaiseau cedex (France)

We demonstrate the lossless state-selective detection of a single rubidium 87 atom trapped in an optical tweezer. This detection is analogous to the one used on trapped ions. After preparation in either a dark or a bright state, we probe the atom internal state by sending laser light that couples an excited state to the bright state only. The laser-induced fluorescence is collected by a high numerical aperture lens. The single-shot fidelity of the detection is 98.6{+-}0.2% and is presently limited by the dark count noise of the detector. The simplicity of this method opens new perspectives in view of applications to quantum manipulations of neutral atoms.

• OSTI ID: 21550258
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 13; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.133003; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
DETECTION
FLUORESCENCE
LASERS
NOISE
RUBIDIUM 87
TRAPPING
VISIBLE RADIATION
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EMISSION
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
LUMINESCENCE
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
PHOTON EMISSION
RADIATIONS
RADIOISOTOPES
RUBIDIUM ISOTOPES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES