https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050056
Photon-number-state generation with a single two-level atom in a cavity: a proposal
Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (Laboratoire
de l'Université Pierre
et Marie Curie et de l'ENS, associé au CNRS (URA 18))
Département de Physique
de l'École Normale Supérieure,
24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
Corresponding author: a jmr@physique.ens.fr
Received:
6
November
1997
Accepted:
17
November
1997
Published online: 15 January 1998
A single two-level atom can be used to prepare an arbitrary photon number state (Fock state) in a high Q cavity . The atom undergoes a controlled succession of interactions with two cavity modes. One of them contains a coherent field. The atom transfers photons one by one from this field to the initially empty second mode. The scheme can be extended to prepare a quantum superposition of the vacuum with a Fock state, a highly non-classical situation. We discuss the feasibility of the experiment with our present Rydberg-atom cavity QED set-up.
PACS: 03.65.-w – Quantum mechanics / 32.80.-t – Photon interactions with atoms / 42.50.-p – Quantum optics
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1998
