Photon-Atom Coupling with Parabolic Mirrors

TL;DR

This paper explores using deep parabolic mirrors to optimize free-space photon-atom coupling, aiming for near-perfect efficiency crucial for quantum technologies and fundamental physics.

Contribution

It introduces a method employing deep parabolic mirrors for mode-matching and atom positioning to achieve high-efficiency photon-atom coupling.

Findings

Developed a robust efficiency measurement method.

Outlined steps for mode preparation and atom placement.

Demonstrated potential for near-unit coupling efficiency.

Abstract

Efficient coupling of light to single atomic systems has gained considerable attention over the past decades. This development is driven by the continuous growth of quantum technologies. The efficient coupling of light and matter is an enabling technology for quantum information processing and quantum communication. And indeed, in recent years much progress has been made in this direction. But applications aside, the interaction of photons and atoms is a fundamental physics problem. There are various possibilities for making this interaction more efficient, among them the apparently 'natural' attempt of mode-matching the light field to the free-space emission pattern of the atomic system of interest. Here we will describe the necessary steps of implementing this mode-matching with the ultimate aim of reaching unit coupling efficiency. We describe the use of deep parabolic mirrors as the central optical element of a free-space coupling scheme, covering the preparation of suitable modes of the field incident onto these mirrors as well as the location of an atom at the mirror's focus. Furthermore, we establish a robust method for determining the efficiency of the photon-atom coupling.