A single atom detector integrated on an atom chip: fabrication, characterization and application
Abstract
We describe a robust and reliable fluorescence detector for single atoms that is fully integrated into an atom chip. The detector allows spectrally and spatially selective detection of atoms, reaching a single atom detection efficiency of 66%. It consists of a tapered lensed single-mode fiber for precise delivery of excitation light and a multi-mode fiber to collect the fluorescence. The fibers are mounted in lithographically defined holding structures on the atom chip. Neutral 87Rb atoms propagating freely in a magnetic guide are detected and the noise of their fluorescence emission is analyzed. The variance of the photon distribution allows to determine the number of detected photons / atom and from there the atom detection efficiency. The second order intensity correlation function of the fluorescence shows near-perfect photon anti-bunching and signs of damped Rabi-oscillations. With simple improvements one can boost the detection efficiency to > 95%.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1002.1573,
title = {A single atom detector integrated on an atom chip: fabrication, characterization and application},
author = {D. Heine and W. Rohringer and D. Fischer and M. Wilzbach and T. Raub and S. Loziczky and XiYuan Liu and S. Groth and B. Hessmo and J. Schmiedmayer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1002.1573},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
24 pages, 11 figures