2013/01/23 by Takahisa Mitsui, Kenichiro Aoki
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Absorption (acoustics) #Atom (system on chip) #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Larmor precession #Laser #Noise (video) #Photon #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum fluctuation #Rubidium #Spectral line #physics.atom-ph #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1140/epjd/e2013-40285-0
6pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2013/01/23 · openalex publication_date 2013/10/01 · arxiv updated 2015/06/12 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Fluctuations in light absorption by atoms are observed by applying laser light on rubidium atoms and measuring the transmitted light intensity fluctuations. These fluctuations are spontaneous noise, which are generic to photon atom interactions. By making use of the sub-shot noise random signal detection technology, we have measured the spectra at sub-shot noise levels to reveal their rich nature, which had previously been unobserved. The effects of atoms transiting the laser beam, Rabi flopping in the optical transitions and Larmor precession of the magnetic moment are observed in the spectra. The properties of the fluctuations reflect not only the quantum behavior of atoms, but also that of light.