Temperature measurement of laser-cooled atoms using vacuum Rabi splitting

摘要

We laser cool rubidium atoms to form a magneto-optical trap, within a Fabry-Perot cavity, and demonstratenstrong coupling of the cold atoms to the cavity. The coupling strength is measured using the vacuum Rabinfrequency splitting (VRS) of transmitted, cavity-coupled light on atomic resonance. The VRS is measurednfor two- and three-level atomic systems and the atom-cavity-coupling strength for each system is determined.nBy allowing the laser-cooled atoms to expand for different times and measuring the corresponding VRS, wendetermine the number of atoms overlapped with the cavity mode as a function of time. This time-of-flight ofnatoms from the cavity permits the measurement of the temperature of the laser-cooled atoms. Finally, the neednfor this technique and its utility is discussed.