Time-resolved Scattering of a Single Photon by a Single Atom

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2016 Nov 30

PMID 27897173

Citations 4

Authors

Victor Leong

Mathias Alexander Seidler

Matthias Steiner

Alessandro Cere

Christian Kurtsiefer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Scattering of light by matter has been studied extensively in the past. Yet, the most fundamental process, the scattering of a single photon by a single atom, is largely unexplored. One prominent prediction of quantum optics is the deterministic absorption of a travelling photon by a single atom, provided the photon waveform matches spatially and temporally the time-reversed version of a spontaneously emitted photon. Here we experimentally address this prediction and investigate the influence of the photon's temporal profile on the scattering dynamics using a single trapped atom and heralded single photons. In a time-resolved measurement of atomic excitation we find a 56(11)% increase of the peak excitation by photons with an exponentially rising profile compared with a decaying one. However, the overall scattering probability remains unchanged within the experimental uncertainties. Our results demonstrate that envelope tailoring of single photons enables precise control of the photon-atom interaction.

Citing Articles

Manipulating and measuring single atoms in the Maltese cross geometry.

Bianchet L, Alves N, Zarraoa L, Bruno N, Mitchell M Open Res Eur. 2023; 1:102.

PMID: 37645131 PMC: 10446080. DOI: 10.12688/openreseurope.13972.2.

Photon bound state dynamics from a single artificial atom.

Tomm N, Mahmoodian S, Antoniadis N, Schott R, Valentin S, Wieck A Nat Phys. 2023; 19(6):857-862.

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Deterministic Loading of Microwaves onto an Artificial Atom Using a Time-Reversed Waveform.

Lin W, Lu Y, Wen P, Cheng Y, Lee C, Lin K Nano Lett. 2022; 22(20):8137-8142.

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Extreme Concentration and Nanoscale Interaction of Light.

Leuchs G, Andrianov A, Anashkina E, Manshina A, Banzer P, Sondermann M ACS Photonics. 2022; 9(6):1842-1851.

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