title: Ground-state cooling of a single atom at the center of an optical cavity.
abstract: A single neutral atom is trapped in a three-dimensional optical lattice at the center of a high-finesse optical resonator. Using fluorescence imaging and a shiftable standing-wave trap, the atom is deterministically loaded into the maximum of the intracavity field where the atom-cavity coupling is strong. After 5 ms of Raman sideband cooling, the three-dimensional motional ground state is populated with a probability of (89±2)%. Our system is the first to simultaneously achieve quantum control over all degrees of freedom of a single atom: its position and momentum, its internal state, and its coupling to light.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reiserer
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nölleke
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ritter
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rempe