Generation of a wave packet tailored to efficient free space excitation of a single atom

Abstract

We demonstrate the generation of an optical dipole wave suitable for the process of efficiently coupling single quanta of light and matter in free space. We employ a parabolic mirror for the conversion of a transverse beam mode to a focused dipole wave and show the required spatial and temporal shaping of the mode incident onto the mirror. The results include a proof of principle correction of the parabolic mirror's aberrations. For the application of exciting an atom with a single photon pulse we demonstrate the creation of a suitable temporal pulse envelope. We infer coupling strengths of 89% and success probabilities of up to 87% for the application of exciting a single atom for the current experimental parameters.

to be published in Europ. Phys. J. D

References in corpus (11)

• Efficient coupling of photons to a single molecule and the observation of its resonance fluorescence
• Strong interaction between light and a single trapped atom without a cavity
• Electro-Optic Modulation of Single Photons
• Perfect Reflection of Light by an Oscillating Dipole
• Ion traps with enhanced optical and physical access
• Single photon absorption by a single quantum emitter
• Design of a mode converter for efficient light-atom coupling in free space
• Phase shift of a weak coherent beam induced by a single atom
• Interfacing light and single atoms with a lens
• A tunable narrowband entangled photon pair source for resonant single-photon single-atom interaction
• Fast Excitation and Photon Emission of a Single-Atom-Cavity System

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Nonlinear photon-atom coupling with 4Pi microscopy
• Ultrarelativistic electrons in counterpropagating laser beams
• Shifting the phase of a coherent beam with a ${}^{174}$Yb${}^{+}$ ion: influence of the scattering cross section
• Deterministic preparation of superpositions of vacuum plus one photon by adaptive homodyne detection: experimental considerations
• Probing non-classical light fields with energetic witnesses in Waveguide Quantum Electro-Dynamics