1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Quantum Optics with Cold Atoms (Inhibition of Spontaneous Emission, Quantum Zeno Effect, and Bose-Einstein Condensation)
| Project/Area Number |
09440150
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
物理学一般
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
KUGA Takahiro Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Univ. of Tokyo, Associate Professor, 大学院・総合文化研究科, 助教授 (60195419)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KOZUMA Mikiko Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Univ. of Tokyo, Research Associate, 大学院・総合文化研究科, 助手 (10302837)
HIRANO Takuya Department of Physics, Gakushuin Univ., Associate Professor, 理学部, 助教授 (00251330)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1997 – 1999
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| Keywords | Laser Cooling / Bose-Einstein Condensate / Matter Wave Interferometer / coherent Matter Wave Amplification / Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics / Vacuum Rabi Splitting |
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| Research Abstract |
We achieved the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of rubidium atomic gas in 1998, which is the first success in Japan and 16th in the world. After the first success of BEC, we concentrated our interests to coherent properties of matter waves. We constructed a Mach-Zehnder interferometer for matter waves by utilizing Bragg diffraction and successfully observed the interference fringes with 100% contrast. This result clarified and confirmed the perfect first order coherence of the condensed atoms. We also performed a coherent matter wave amplification with condensed atoms. A small fraction (about 6%) of BEC atoms was diffracted by a Bragg pulse and non-resonant laser on the BEC could amplify the matter wave by a factor of 10. We verified that the phase of matter wave was conserved through this amplification process using our Mach-Zehnder interferometer for mater waves.
The strong atom-photon coupling generated inside high-finesse optical micro cavity lets us detect a single atom trajectory in real time. Such a strong coupling is a candidate for trapping a single atom with a single photon, which is very suitable to realize quantum gate, single photon generator, and so on. Several preliminary experimental results have already been reported. However, they are limited to the use of longitudinal cavity mode. We proposed and constructed a novel type of single-atom trapping using a high-order transverse mode of the cavity. We observed the signal from single atoms with a fairly good signal to noise ratio. Now we are trying to trap single atoms with single photons in TEMィイD201ィエD2 mode of the micro cavity.
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