Frequency shift of an optical cavity mode due to a single-atom motion

ABSTRACT

Using quantum coherence effects, we have developed a new technique of detection of motion of single atoms or ions in an optical cavity. We have theoretically demonstrated that the presence of a single atom or ion inside cavity leads to a shift in cavity frequency and phase of transmitted probe beams. It has been shown by the use of EIT technique, the change of the phase is extremely sensitive to probe detuning in the vicinity of resonance frequency and can be in the order of ${10}^{-4}$.

Keywords:

• Single-atom detector
• optical cavity
• frequency shift
• phase shift
• quantum coherence

Acknowledgements

We thank Kunal Das, Zorica Brankovic, John C. Howell, Andrey Matsko, Eugine Mikhailov, Irina Novikova, Robert Murawski, Selim Shahriar and Ashley M. Knight for fruitful discussions, comments and suggestions, and gratefully acknowledge the support from The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Processes Institute at the University of North Texas seed research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.