Measurement of the atom number distribution in an optical tweezer using single photon counting

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to accurately determine the atom number distribution in an optical tweezer by counting scattered photons, enabling precise characterization of cold atom clouds.

Contribution

The authors introduce a photon counting technique to reconstruct atom number distributions in optical tweezers, calibrated with single-atom response, demonstrating compatibility with a Poisson distribution.

Findings

Atom number distribution is compatible with a Poisson distribution.

Photon counting method effectively reconstructs atom number distribution.

Calibration with single-atom response enables accurate measurement.

Abstract

We demonstrate in this paper a method to reconstruct the atom number distribution of a cloud containing a few tens of cold atoms. The atoms are first loaded from a magneto-optical trap into a microscopic optical dipole trap and then released in a resonant light probe where they undergo a Brownian motion and scatter photons. We count the number of photon events detected on an image intensifier. Using the response of our detection system to a single atom as a calibration, we extract the atom number distribution when the trap is loaded with more than one atom. The atom number distribution is found to be compatible with a Poisson distribution.