Collective State Measurement of Mesoscopic Ensembles with Single-Atom Resolution
We demonstrate single-atom resolution, as well as detection sensitivity more than 20 dB below the quantum projection noise limit, for hyperfine-state-selective measurements on mesoscopic ensembles containing 100 or more atoms. The measurement detects the atom-induced shift of the resonance frequency...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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Other Authors: | |
Format: | Article |
Language: | en_US |
Published: |
American Physical Society
2013
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76294 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5450-8809 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9786-0538 |
Summary: | We demonstrate single-atom resolution, as well as detection sensitivity more than 20 dB below the quantum projection noise limit, for hyperfine-state-selective measurements on mesoscopic ensembles containing 100 or more atoms. The measurement detects the atom-induced shift of the resonance frequency of an optical cavity containing the ensemble. While spatially varying coupling of atoms to the cavity prevents the direct observation of a quantized signal, the demonstrated measurement resolution provides the readout capability necessary for atomic interferometry substantially below the standard quantum limit and down to the Heisenberg limit. |
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