Atom counting in ultra-cold gases using photoionisation and ion detection

Abstract

We analyse photoionisation and ion detection as a means of accurately counting ultra-cold atoms. We show that it is possible to count clouds containing many thousands of atoms with accuracies better than $N^{-1/2}$ with current technology. This allows the direct probing of sub-Poissonian number statistics of atomic samples. The scheme can also be used for efficient single atom detection with high spatio-temporal resolution. All aspects of a realistic detection scheme are considered, and we discuss experimental situations in which such a scheme could be implemented.

10 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms
• Spatial quantum noise interferometry in expanding ultracold atom clouds
• Interference of an array of independent Bose-Einstein condensates

Cited by in corpus (9)

• A scalable, high-speed measurement-based quantum computer using trapped ions
• Highly-efficient state-selective sub-microsecond photoionization detection of single atoms
• Transport of ultracold Bose gases beyond the Gross-Pitaevskii description
• Transport and interaction blockade of cold bosonic atoms in a triple-well potential
• Efficient Photoionization-Loading of Trapped Cadmium Ions with Ultrafast Pulses
• Pairing mean-field theory for the dynamics of dissociation of molecular Bose-Einstein condensates
• Spatially resolved photo ionization of ultracold atoms on an atom chip
• Calibration of a single atom detector for atomic micro chips
• Coherent macroscopic quantum tunneling in boson-fermion mixtures