A double-well atom trap for fluorescence detection at the Heisenberg limit

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate an atom number detector capable of simultaneous detection of two mesoscopic ensembles with single-atom resolution. Such a sensitivity is a prerequisite for quantum metrology at a precision approaching the Heisenberg limit. Our system is based on fluorescence detection of atoms in a novel hybrid trap in which a dipole barrier divides a magneto-optical trap into two separated wells. We introduce a noise model describing the various sources contributing to the measurement error and report a limit of up to 500 atoms for single-atom resolution in the atom number difference.

7 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Thermalisation in a Bose-Hubbard dimer with modulated tunneling
• Finite-size effects in a bosonic Josephson junction
• Effects of interactions on the generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel effect
• Single atom counting in a two-color magneto-optical trap
• Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of more than 10 indistinguishable atoms