English

A double-well atom trap for fluorescence detection at the Heisenberg limit

Atomic Physics 2015-06-23 v2 Quantum Physics

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate an atom number detector capable of simultaneous detection of two mesoscopic ensembles with single-atom resolution. Such a sensitivity is a prerequisite for quantum metrology at a precision approaching the Heisenberg limit. Our system is based on fluorescence detection of atoms in a novel hybrid trap in which a dipole barrier divides a magneto-optical trap into two separated wells. We introduce a noise model describing the various sources contributing to the measurement error and report a limit of up to 500 atoms for single-atom resolution in the atom number difference.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1411.5812,
  title  = {A double-well atom trap for fluorescence detection at the Heisenberg limit},
  author = {Ion Stroescu and David B. Hume and Markus K. Oberthaler},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1411.5812},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

7 pages, 4 figures