Interfacing Atoms and Photons
Interfacing atomic systems with light has seen fantastic progress over the last years. Laser cooled neutral atoms and charged ions have paved the way for studies of many fundamental effects in quantum mechanics. Using optical resonators to enhance the interaction of the atomic system allows one to study the elemental atom light interaction in great detail. Recently this interaction has also been at the core of many proposals for implementing devices for quantum information processing and quantum computation.
We experiment both with neutral atoms, in our Rubidium Experiment, and with charged ions, in our Barium+ and Lutetium+ experiments. We are also interested in scaling up the experiments and make things easier by using Microtraps and Microoptics.