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Optical control of the refractive index of a single atom

Quantum Physics 2015-03-17 v2 Atomic Physics Optics

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the elementary case of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with a single atom inside an optical cavity probed by a weak field. We observe the modification of the dispersive and absorptive properties of the atom by changing the frequency of a control light field. Moreover, a strong cooling effect has been observed at two-photon resonance, increasing the storage time of our atoms twenty-fold to about 16 seconds. Our result points towards all-optical switching with single photons.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1004.5348,
  title  = {Optical control of the refractive index of a single atom},
  author = {Tobias Kampschulte and Wolfgang Alt and Stefan Brakhane and Martin Eckstein and René Reimann and Artur Widera and Dieter Meschede},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1004.5348},
  year   = {2015}
}