title: Preparation of an exponentially rising optical pulse for efficient excitation of single atoms in free space.
abstract: We report on a simple method to prepare optical pulses with exponentially rising envelope on the time scale of a few ns. The scheme is based on the exponential transfer function of a fast transistor, which generates an exponentially rising envelope that is transferred first on a radio frequency carrier, and then on a coherent cw laser beam with an electro-optical phase modulator. The temporally shaped sideband is then extracted with an optical resonator and can be used to efficiently excite a single (87)Rb atom.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117543.
authors.forename: Hoang Lan
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Dao
authors.forename: Syed Abdullah
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Aljunid
authors.forename: Gleb
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maslennikov
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kurtsiefer