2011/06/30 by Peter B. R. Nisbet-Jones, Peter Nisbet, Jerome Dilley +2
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic physics #Cavity quantum electrodynamics #Computational physics #Intermittency #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Mechanics #Open quantum system #Optics #Photon #Physics #Point (geometry) #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Single-photon source #Trapping #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/13/10/103036
arxiv created 2011/06/30 · openalex publication_date 2011/10/26 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · arxiv updated 2017/07/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We demonstrate a straightforward implementation of a push-button like single-photon source, which is based on a strongly coupled atom–cavity system. The device operates intermittently for periods of up to 100 μ s, with single-photon repetition rates of 1.0 MHz and an efficiency of 60%. Atoms are loaded into the cavity using an atomic fountain, with the upper turning point near the cavity's mode centre. This ensures long interaction times without any disturbances induced by trapping potentials. The latter is the key to reaching deterministic efficiencies as high as obtained in probabilistic photon-heralding schemes. The price to pay is the random loading of atoms into the cavity and the resulting intermittency. However, for all practical purposes, this has a negligible impact as an individual atom may emit up to 100 successive photons.