Quantum jumps induced by the center-of-mass motion of a trapped atom

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how quantum jumps in a trapped atom's resonance fluorescence reveal changes in its vibrational motion, providing insights into atomic motion through fluorescence observations.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework linking quantum jumps to vibrational phonon changes in a laser-cooled trapped atom, highlighting new ways to infer atomic motion from fluorescence.

Findings

Quantum jumps correlate with phonon number changes in atomic motion.

Spectral features of fluorescence reveal vibrational state information.

Analysis of dark periods provides insights into atomic dynamics.

Abstract

We theoretically study the occurrence of quantum jumps in the resonance fluorescence of a trapped atom. Here, the atom is laser cooled in a configuration of level such that the occurrence of a quantum jump is associated to a change of the vibrational center-of-mass motion by one phonon. The statistics of the occurrence of the dark fluorescence period is studied as a function of the physical parameters and the corresponding features in the spectrum of resonance fluorescence are identified. We discuss the information which can be extracted on the atomic motion from the observation of a quantum jump in the considered setup.