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Measurement of the internal state of a single atom without energy exchange

Nature volume 475, pages 210–213 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

A measurement necessarily changes the quantum state being measured, a phenomenon known as back-action. Real measurements, however, almost always cause a much stronger back-action than is required by the laws of quantum mechanics. Quantum non-demolition measurements have been devised1,2,3,4,5,6 that keep the additional back-action entirely within observables other than the one being measured. However, this back-action on other observables often imposes its own constraints. In particular, free-space optical detection methods for single atoms and ions (such as the shelving technique7, a sensitive and well-developed method) inevitably require spontaneous scattering, even in the dispersive regime8. This causes irreversible energy exchange (heating), which is a limitation in atom-based quantum information processing, where it obviates straightforward reuse of the qubit. No such energy exchange is required by quantum mechanics9. Here we experimentally demonstrate optical detection of an atomic qubit with significantly less than one spontaneous scattering event. We measure the transmission and reflection of an optical cavity10,11,12,13 containing the atom. In addition to the qubit detection itself, we quantitatively measure how much spontaneous scattering has occurred. This allows us to relate the information gained to the amount of spontaneous emission, and we obtain a detection error below 10 per cent while scattering less than 0.2 photons on average. Furthermore, we perform a quantum Zeno-type experiment to quantify the measurement back-action, and find that every incident photon leads to an almost complete state collapse. Together, these results constitute a full experimental characterization of a quantum measurement in the ‘energy exchange-free’ regime below a single spontaneous emission event. Besides its fundamental interest, this approach could significantly simplify proposed neutral-atom quantum computation schemes14, and may enable sensitive detection of molecules and atoms lacking closed transitions.

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Figure 1: Cavity-assisted detection of an atomic qubit.
Figure 2: Back-action measurement using the quantum Zeno effect.
Figure 3: Spontaneous emission during detection.
Figure 4: Detection error and knowledge versus number of scattered photons.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded in part by the AQUTE Integrated Project of the EU (grant no. 247687), by the Institut Francilien pour la Recherche sur les Atomes Froids (IFRAF), and by the EURYI grant ‘Integrated Quantum Devices’.

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Author notes

  1. Guilhem Dubois

    Present address: Present address: Astron FIAMM, 35 rue Pasteur, 83210 La Farlède, France.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel, ENS, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie – Paris 6, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France

    Jürgen Volz, Roger Gehr, Guilhem Dubois, Jérôme Estève & Jakob Reichel

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  1. Jürgen Volz
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  2. Roger Gehr
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  3. Guilhem Dubois
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Contributions

J.V., R.G. and G.D. performed the experiment. All authors contributed to data analysis and interpretation, as well as to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jakob Reichel.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Volz, J., Gehr, R., Dubois, G. et al. Measurement of the internal state of a single atom without energy exchange. Nature 475, 210–213 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10225

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