Improved detection of small atom numbers through image processing
Atomic Physics
2010-12-17 v1 Quantum Gases
Abstract
We demonstrate improved detection of small trapped atomic ensembles through advanced post-processing and optimal analysis of absorption images. A fringe removal algorithm reduces imaging noise to the fundamental photon-shot-noise level and proves beneficial even in the absence of fringes. A maximum-likelihood estimator is then derived for optimal atom-number estimation and is applied to real experimental data to measure the population differences and intrinsic atom shot-noise between spatially separated ensembles each comprising between 10 and 2000 atoms. The combined techniques improve our signal-to-noise by a factor of 3, to a minimum resolvable population difference of 17 atoms, close to our ultimate detection limit.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1007.2136,
title = {Improved detection of small atom numbers through image processing},
author = {C. F. Ockeloen and A. F. Tauschinsky and R. J. C. Spreeuw and S. Whitlock},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1007.2136},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 figures