Limit to non-destructive optical detection of atoms

Abstract

All optical techniques used to probe the properties of Bose-Einstein condensates have been based on dispersion and absorption that can be described by a two-level atom. Both phenomena lead to spontaneous emission that is destructive. Recently, both were shown to lead to the same limit to the signal to noise ratio for a given destruction. We generalise this result to show that no single-pass optical technique using classical light, based on any number of lasers or coherences between any number of levels, can exceed the limit imposed by the two-level atom. This puts significant restrictions on potential non-destructive measurement schemes.

4 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (4)

• Theory of Bose-Einstein condensation in trapped gases
• Towards single-atom detection on a chip
• Non-destructive, dynamic detectors for Bose-Einstein condensates
• Non-destructive spatial heterodyne imaging of cold atoms

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• Fundamental Limits of Feedback Cooling Ultracold Atomic Gases
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