Cavity QED in a high NA resonator.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40009689.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.ads8171 and PMC identifier 11864187.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
From fundamental studies of light-matter interaction to applications in quantum networking and sensing, cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) provides a toolbox to control interactions between atoms and photons. The coherence of interactions is determined by the single-pass atomic absorption and number of photon round-trips. Reducing the cavity loss has enabled resonators supporting 1 million roundtrips but with limited material choices and increased alignment sensitivity. Here, we present a high-numerical aperture, lens-based resonator that pushes the single-atom single-photon absorption probability near its fundamental limit, reducing the mode size at the atom to order λ. This resonator provides a single-atom cooperativity of 1.6 in a cavity where the light circulates ∼10 times. We load single <sup>87</sup>Rb atoms into this cavity, observe strong coupling, and demonstrate cavity-enhanced atom detection with fidelity of 99.55(6)% and survival of 99.89(4)% in 130 μs. Introducing intracavity imaging systems will enable cavity arrays compatible with Rydberg atom array computing technologies, expanding the applicability of the cavity QED toolbox.