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Quantum jumps of light recording the birth and death of a photon in a cavity

Author

Listed:
  • Sébastien Gleyzes

    (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France)

  • Stefan Kuhr

    (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
    Present address: Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Institut für Physik, Staudingerweg 7, 55128 Mainz, Germany.)

  • Christine Guerlin

    (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France)

  • Julien Bernu

    (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France)

  • Samuel Deléglise

    (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France)

  • Ulrich Busk Hoff

    (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France)

  • Michel Brune

    (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France)

  • Jean-Michel Raimond

    (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France)

  • Serge Haroche

    (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
    Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France)

Abstract

Life and death of a photon In a microscopic quantum system under continuous observation, it should be possible to detect sudden changes or jumps in the quantum state of trapped particles. This has been done with particles with mass, like electrons and molecules, but it had not been possible for massless light quanta, since standard photodetectors absorb light, prohibiting repeated measurements of the same photon. This obstacle has now been overcome using a stream of non-absorbing atoms to probe microwave photons stored in a superconducting cavity. Sequences of hundreds of atoms, highly correlated in the same state, are interrupted by sudden state switchings. These telegraphic signals record the birth, life and death of individual photons. This work comes close to realizing Einstein's dream of a single photon stored in a box for times in the second range and weighed by a sensitive scale — a stream of atoms in this experiment.

Suggested Citation

  • Sébastien Gleyzes & Stefan Kuhr & Christine Guerlin & Julien Bernu & Samuel Deléglise & Ulrich Busk Hoff & Michel Brune & Jean-Michel Raimond & Serge Haroche, 2007. "Quantum jumps of light recording the birth and death of a photon in a cavity," Nature, Nature, vol. 446(7133), pages 297-300, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:446:y:2007:i:7133:d:10.1038_nature05589
    DOI: 10.1038/nature05589
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    Cited by:

    1. Deschamps, Julien, 2015. "Continuous-time limit of repeated interactions for a system in a confining potential," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 327-342.
    2. Lira, J. & de Oliveira, J.G.G. & de Faria, J.G. Peixoto & Nemes, M.C., 2022. "Two proposals to protect a qubit using CQED techniques: Inequality between atomic velocity dispersion and losses of a quantum memory," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 591(C).
    3. Pellegrini, Clément, 2010. "Existence, uniqueness and approximation of the jump-type stochastic Schrodinger equation for two-level systems," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 120(9), pages 1722-1747, August.
    4. Marcus Ossiander & Maryna Leonidivna Meretska & Sarah Rourke & Christina Spägele & Xinghui Yin & Ileana-Cristina Benea-Chelmus & Federico Capasso, 2023. "Metasurface-stabilized optical microcavities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

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