2010/02/26 by O. Astafiev, A. M. Zagoskin, A. A. Abdumalikov Jr. +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.supr-con #cond-mat.mes-hall #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1181918
published as Science 327, 840-843 (2010) · 5 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2010/02/26 · arxiv updated 2015/05/18
An atom in open space can be detected by means of resonant absorption and reemission of electromagnetic waves, known as resonance fluorescence, which is a fundamental phenomenon of quantum optics. We report on the observation of scattering of propagating waves by a single artificial atom. The behavior of the artificial atom, a superconducting macroscopic two-level system, is in a quantitative agreement with the predictions of quantum optics for a pointlike scatterer interacting with the electromagnetic field in one-dimensional open space. The strong atom-field interaction as revealed in a high degree of extinction of propagating waves will allow applications of controllable artificial atoms in quantum optics and photonics.