Feedback Cooling of a Single Neutral Atom

Abstract

We demonstrate feedback cooling of the motion of a single rubidium atom trapped in a high-finesse optical resonator to a temperature of about 160 μK. Time-dependent transmission and intensity-correlation measurements prove the reduction of the atomic position uncertainty. The feedback increases the 1/e storage time into the one second regime, 30 times longer than without feedback. Feedback cooling therefore rivals state-of-the-art laser cooling, but with the advantages that it requires less optical access and exhibits less optical pumping.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Feedback cooling of a cantilever's fundamental mode below 5 mK
• Cooling to the Ground State of Axial Motion for One Atom Strongly Coupled to an Optical Cavity
• Cavity-based single atom preparation and high-fidelity hyperfine state readout
• Quantum Feedback Control of Atomic Motion in an Optical Cavity
• Quantum Limits of Stochastic Cooling of a Bosonic Gas