Controlled photon emission and Raman transition experiments with a single trapped atom

Abstract

We present recent results on the coherent control of an optical transition in a single rubidium atom, trapped in an optical tweezer. We excite the atom using resonant light pulses that are short (4 ns) compared with the lifetime of the excited state (26 ns). By varying the intensity of the laser pulses, we can observe an adjustable number of Rabi oscillations, followed by free decay once the light is switched off. To generate the pulses we have developed a novel laser system based on frequency doubling a telecoms laser diode at 1560 nm. By setting the laser intensity to make a pi-pulse, we use this coherent control to make a high quality triggered source of single photons. We obtain an average single photon rate of 9600 s-1 at the detector. Measurements of the second-order temporal correlation function show almost perfect antibunching at zero delay. In addition, we present preliminary results on the use of Raman transitions to couple the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of our trapped atom. This will allow us to prepare and control a qubit formed by two hyperfine sub-levels.