Integrated atom detector: Single atoms and photon statistics

2009/02/27 by Dennis Heine, Marco Wilzbach, Thomas Raub +3 · 20 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Correlation function (quantum field theory) #Detector #Fluorescence #Optics #Optoelectronics #Photon #Photon antibunching #Photon counting #Photon statistics #Physics #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.79.021804

published in Physical Review A 79(2) (American Physical Society) · 4 pages, 4 figures

openalex publication_date 2009/02/27 · arxiv created 2009/03/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We demonstrate a robust fiber-optics-based fluorescence detector, fully integrated on an atom chip, which detects single atoms propagating in a guide with 66% efficiency. We characterize the detector performance and the atom flux by analyzing the photon statistics. Near-perfect photon antibunching proves that single atoms are detected, and allows us to study the second-order intensity correlation function of the fluorescence over three orders of magnitude in atomic density.

Citations

• Optimized magneto-optical trap for experiments with ultracold atoms near surfaces
• Experimental violation of a Bell's inequality with efficient detection
• Strong atom–field coupling for Bose–Einstein condensates in an optical cavity on a chip
• Photon Antibunching in Resonance Fluorescence
• Diffraction-limited optics for single-atom manipulation