Francois Dubin

Feedback cooling of a single trapped ion.

Based on a real-time measurement of the motion of a single ion in a Paul trap, we demonstrate its electromechanical cooling below the Doppler limit by homodyne feedback control (cold damping). The feedback cooling results are well described by a model based on a quantum mechanical master equation.

Heralded single-photon absorption by a single atom

The absorption of one photon of an entangled pair by a lone trapped atom is identified by a correlation between the atomic absorption process and the detection of the second photon.

Quantum interference from remotely trapped ions

We observe quantum interference of photons emitted by two continuously laser-excited single ions, independently trapped in distinct vacuum vessels. High contrast two-photon interference is observed in two experiments with different ion species, Ca+ and Ba+. Our experimental findings are quantitatively reproduced by Bloch equation calculations. In particular, we show that the coherence of the individual resonance fluorescence light field is determined from the observed interference.

Photon Correlation versus Interference of Single-Atom Fluorescence in a Half-Cavity

Photon correlations are investigated for a single laser-excited ion trapped in front of a mirror. Varying the relative distance between the ion and the mirror, photon correlation statistics can be tuned smoothly from an antibunching minimum to a bunchinglike maximum. Our analysis concerns the non-Markovian regime of the ion-mirror interaction and reveals the field establishment in a half-cavity interferometer.

Raman spectroscopy of a single ion coupled to a high-finesse cavity

We describe an ion-based cavity-QED system in which the internal dynamics of an atom is coupled to the modes of an optical cavity by vacuum-stimulated Raman transitions. We observe Raman spectra for different excitation polarizations and find quantitative agreement with theoretical simulations. Residual motion of the ion introduces motional sidebands in the Raman spectrum and leads to ion delocalization. The system offers prospects for cavity-assisted resolved-sideband ground-state cooling and coherent manipulation of ions and photons.

Quantum to classical transition in a single-ion laser

‘Quantum’ lasers — with one atom interacting with a single optical mode — do not exhibit a conventional-laser-like threshold in the regime of strong light–matter coupling. A study now shows that a threshold is seen when the coupling strength is reduced, which represents the onset of classical lasing.

Photon entanglement detection by a single atom

We use a single trapped Ca ion as a resonant, polarization-sensitive absorber to detect and characterize the entanglement of tunable narrowband photon pairs from a spontaneous parametric down-conversion source. Single-photon absorption is marked by a quantum jump in the ion and heralded by coincident detection of the partner photon. For three polarization basis settings of absorption and detection of the herald, we find maximum coincidences always for orthogonal polarizations. The polarization entanglement is further evidenced by tomographic reconstruction of the biphoton quantum state.We use a single trapped 40Ca+ ion as a resonant, polarization-sensitive absorber to detect and characterize the entanglement of tunable narrowband photon pairs from a spontaneous parametric down-conversion source. Single-photon absorption is marked by a quantum jump in the ion and heralded by coincident detection of the partner photon. For three polarization basis settings of the absorption and detection of the herald, we find maximum coincidences always for orthogonal polarizations. The polarization entanglement is further evidenced by tomographic reconstruction of the biphoton quantum state with an overlap fidelity of 93% with the Bell singlet state. This is an essential step toward a single-ion based quantum memory for photonic entanglement.

Resonant interaction of a single atom with single photons from a down-conversion source

We observe the interaction of a single trapped calcium ion with single photons produced by a narrow-band, resonant down-conversion source [A. Haase et al., Opt. Lett. 34, 55 (2009)], employing a quantum jump scheme. Using the temperature dependence of the down-conversion spectrum and the tunability of the narrow source, absorption of the down-conversion photons is quantitatively characterized.

Bandwidth-tunable single-photon source in an ion-trap quantum network.

We report a tunable single-photon source based on a single trapped ion. Employing spontaneous Raman scattering and in-vacuum optics with large numerical aperture, single photons are efficiently created with controlled temporal shape and coherence time. These can be varied between 70 ns and 1.6 micros, as characterized by operating two sources simultaneously in two remote ion traps which reveals mutual and individual coherence through two-photon interference.

Quantum signature blurred by disorder in indirect exciton gases

The photoluminescence dynamics of a microscopic gas of indirect excitons trapped in coupled quantum wells is probed at very low bath temperature (≈350 mK). Our experiments reveal the non-linear energy relaxation characteristics of indirect excitons. Particularly, we observe that the excitons dynamics is strongly correlated with the screening of structural disorder by repulsive exciton-exciton interactions. For our experiments where two-dimensional excitonic states are gradually defined, the distinctive enhancement of the exciton scattering rate towards lowest-energy states with increasing density does not reveal unambiguously quantum statistical effects such as Bose stimulation.