2004/07/31 by V. V. Ivanov, V V Ivanov, R. A. Cornelussen +5
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1464-4266/6/11/005
published as J. Opt. B: Quantum Semiclass. Opt. 6 (2004) 454-459 · 6 pages, 6 figures, some minor revisions
arxiv created 2004/08/20 · openalex publication_date 2004/09/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report on measurements of the radiative properties of cold 87Rb atoms close to a dielectric-vacuum interface. This is the first observation of a quantum electrodynamic (QED) modification of radiative properties in vacuum near a dielectric surface. A cloud of cold atoms was created using a magneto-optical trap (MOT) and optical molasses cooling. Evanescent waves (EW) were used to observe the behavior of the atoms near the surface. We observed an increase of the natural linewidth with up to 25% with respect to the free-space value. We attribute this to QED broadening and level shifts, as well as local Stark shifts near the surface. By varying the characteristic EW length we have observed a position dependence characteristic for QED.