Boon Long Ng

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) can be used to cool an atom in a harmonic potential close to the ground state by addressing several vibrational modes simultaneously. Previous experimental efforts focus on trapped ions and neutral atoms in a standing wave trap. In this work, we demonstrate EIT cooling of an optically trapped single neutral atom, where the trap frequencies are an order of magnitude smaller than in an ion trap and a standing wave trap.

Abstract Resonance fluorescence from atomic systems consists of a single spectral peak that evolves into a Mollow triplet for a strong excitation field. Photons from different peaks of the triplet show distinct timing correlations that make the fluorescence a useful light source for quantum information purposes. We characterize the fluorescence of a single optically trapped Rb87 atom that is excited resonantly at different power levels.