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Fiber-Optical Switch Controlled by a Single Atom

Danny O’Shea, Christian Junge, Jürgen Volz, and Arno Rauschenbeutel
Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 193601 – Published 4 November 2013
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Abstract

We demonstrate highly efficient switching of optical signals between two optical fibers controlled by a single atom. The key element of our experiment is a whispering-gallery-mode bottle microresonator, which is coupled to a single atom and interfaced by two tapered fiber couplers. This system reaches the strong coupling regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics, leading to a vacuum Rabi splitting in the excitation spectrum. We systematically investigate the switching efficiency of our system, i.e., the probability that the fiber-optical switch redirects the light into the desired output. We obtain a large redirection efficiency reaching a raw fidelity of more than 60% without postselection. Moreover, by measuring the second-order correlation functions of the output fields, we show that our switch exhibits a photon-number-dependent routing capability.

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  • Received 5 June 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.193601

© 2013 American Physical Society

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A Single-Atom Optical Switch

Published 4 November 2013

Researchers have succeeded in creating a microphotonic optical switch, in which a single atom redirects photons down different fiber paths.

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Authors & Affiliations

Danny O’Shea, Christian Junge, Jürgen Volz, and Arno Rauschenbeutel*

  • Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Atominstitut, Vienna University of Technology, 1020 Vienna, Austria

  • *Arno.Rauschenbeutel@ati.ac.at

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Issue

Vol. 111, Iss. 19 — 8 November 2013

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