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...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2012-09, Vol.109 (13), p.133603-133603, Article 133603
Main Authors: Zhang, Hao, McConnell, Robert, Cuk, Senka, Lin, Qian, Schleier-Smith, Monika H, Leroux, Ian D, Vuletić, Vladan
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
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.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.133603