Strong Purcell effect on a neutral atom trapped in an open fiber cavity

Abstract

We observe a sixfold Purcell broadening of the D${}_2$ line of an optically trapped ${}^{87}\text{Rb}$ atom strongly coupled to a fiber cavity. Under external illumination by a near-resonant laser, up to $90\%$ of the atom's fluorescence is emitted into the resonant cavity mode. The sub-Poissonian statistics of the cavity output and the Purcell enhancement of the atomic decay rate are confirmed by the observation of a strongly narrowed antibunching dip in the photon autocorrelation function. The photon leakage through the higher-transmission mirror of the single-sided resonator is the dominant contribution to the field decay ($\kappa \approx 2\pi \times 50\text{MHz}$), thus offering a high-bandwidth, fiber-coupled channel for photonic interfaces such as quantum memories and single-photon sources.

10 pages, 7 figures