Atom-photon interactions in a system of coupled cavities

Abdelkrim El Amili (1) , Sébastien Gleyzes (2) , Christoph I Westbrook (3)

1 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes
2 LKB (Lhomond) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel
3 Laboratoire Charles Fabry / Optique atomique

We give a theoretical treatment of single atom detection in an compound, optical micro cavity. The cavity consists of a single mode semiconductor waveguide with a gap to allow atoms to interact with the optical field in the cavity. Optical losses, both in the semiconductor and induced by the gap are considered and we give an estimate of the cavity finesse. We also compute the cooperativity parameter and show how it depends on the gap width and cavity length. Maximization of the cooperativity does not always correspond to maximization of the coupling.

Mots clés: microcavity; Atom detection; optical waveguide

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]; Optique [physics.optics]

Abdelkrim El Amili, Sébastien Gleyzes, Christoph I Westbrook. Atom-photon interactions in a system of coupled cavities. Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 2012, 29 (7), pp.1618-1624. ⟨10.1364/JOSAB.29.001618⟩. ⟨hal-00658074v2⟩