Electromagnetically induced transparency with single atoms in a cavity

Abstract

Optical nonlinearities offer unique possibilities for the control of light with light. A prominent example is electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), where the transmission of a probe beam through an optically dense medium is manipulated by means of a control beam. Scaling such experiments into the quantum domain with one (or just a few) particles of light and matter will allow for the implementation of quantum computing protocols with atoms and photons, or the realization of strongly interacting photon gases exhibiting quantum phase transitions of light. Reaching these aims is challenging and requires an enhanced matter-light interaction, as provided by cavity quantum electrodynamics. Here we demonstrate EIT with a single atom quasi-permanently trapped inside a high-finesse optical cavity. The atom acts as a quantum-optical transistor with the ability to coherently control the transmission of light through the cavity. We investigate the scaling of EIT when the atom number is increased one-by-one. The measured spectra are in excellent agreement with a theoretical model. Merging EIT with cavity quantum electrodynamics and single quanta of matter is likely to become the cornerstone for novel applications, such as dynamic control of the photon statistics of propagating light fields or the engineering of Fock state superpositions of flying light pulses.

Electromagnetically-induced-transparency control of single-atom motion in an optical cavity

“…This work was triggered by recent experimental studies of single photon EIT [25,26], where long trap lifetimes times have been observed [26], indicating robust cooling in this system, and on recent theoretical studies [27] of cooling in this experimental setup. Here, we demonstrate cavity-assisted EIT cooling of an atom in a dipole trap.…”

What is and what is not electromagnetically induced transparency in whispering-gallery microcavities

“…Coherent processes leading to EIT and ATS have been studied in: atomic gases 7,13 , atomic and molecular systems 14 , solid-state systems 15 , superconductors 16,17 , plasmonics 18 , metamaterials 19 , optomechanics 20,21 , electronics 22 , photonic crystals 23 and whispering-gallery-mode microresonators (WGMRs) [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] . Systems in which EIT and ATS have been studied are listed in Fig.…”

Coherence-Driven Topological Transition in Quantum Metamaterials

“…It is well-known that quantum coherence can drastically change the optical properties of a medium; in particular, absorption can practically vanish even at the single atom-photon level [13].…”