Vacuum-field level shifts in a single trapped ion mediated by a single distant mirror.
A distant mirror leads to a vacuum-induced level shift in a laser-excited atom. This effect has been measured with a single mirror 25 cm away from a single, trapped barium ion. This dispersive action is the counterpart to the mirror's dissipative effect, which has been shown earlier to effect a change in the ion's spontaneous decay [Nature (London) 413, 495 (2001)]]. The experimental data are well described by eight-level optical Bloch equations which are amended to take into account the presence of the mirror according to the model in Phys. Rev. A 66, 023816 (2002)]. Observed deviations from simple dispersive behavior are attributed to multilevel effects.
Wilson
M A
MA
Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Bushev
P
P
Eschner
J
J
Schmidt-Kaler
F
F
Becher
C
C
Blatt
R
R
Dorner
U
U