General limit to nondestructive optical detection of atoms

We demonstrate that there is a fundamental limit to the sensitivity of phase-based detection of atoms with light for a given maximum level of allowable spontaneous emission. This is a generalization of previous results for two- and three-level atoms. The limit is due to an upper bound on the phase s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics, 2005-04, Vol.71 (4), Article 043822
Main Authors: Hope, J. J., Close, J. D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMS
DETECTION
EMISSION
EXCITED STATES
LASER RADIATION
OPTICS
PHASE SHIFT
PHOTON-ATOM COLLISIONS
POTENTIALS
SENSITIVITY
VISIBLE RADIATION
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Summary:We demonstrate that there is a fundamental limit to the sensitivity of phase-based detection of atoms with light for a given maximum level of allowable spontaneous emission. This is a generalization of previous results for two- and three-level atoms. The limit is due to an upper bound on the phase shift that can be imparted on a laser beam for a given excited-state population. Specifically, we show that no single-pass optical technique using classical light, based on any number of lasers or coherences between any number of levels, can exceed the limit imposed by the two-level atom. This puts significant restrictions on potential nondestructive optical measurement schemes.
ISSN:1050-2947
1094-1622
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.71.043822