An integrated atom detector: single atoms and photon statistics
arXiv:0903.3896 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.79.021804
Abstract
We demonstrate a robust fiber-optics-based fluorescence detector, fully integrated on an atom chip, which detects single atoms propagating in a guide with 66% efficiency. We characterize the detector performance and the atom flux by analyzing the photon statistics. Near-perfect photon antibunching proves that single atoms are detected, and allows us to study the second-order intensity correlation function of the fluorescence over three orders of magnitude in atomic density.
4 pages, 4 figures