Collective strong coupling between ion Coulomb crystals and an optical cavity field: Theory and experiment

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis of the coherent coupling between ion Coulomb crystals and an optical cavity field, demonstrating strong coupling in a controlled setting.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed theoretical model and experimental methods for achieving and measuring strong coupling between ion Coulomb crystals and optical cavities.

Findings

Good agreement between theory and experiment

Successful measurement of coherent coupling rate

Validation of semiclassical models

Abstract

A detailed description and theoretical analysis of experiments achieving coherent coupling between an ion Coulomb crystal and an optical cavity field are presented. The various methods used to measure the coherent coupling rate between large ion Coulomb crystals in a linear quadrupole radiofrequency ion trap and a single field mode of a moderately high-finesse cavity are described in detail. Theoretical models based on a semiclassical approach are applied in assessment of the experimental results of [P. F. Herskind et al., Nature Phys. 5, 494 (2009)] and of complementary new measurements. Generally, a very good agreement between theory and experiments is obtained.