1201.5280 (E. W. Streed et al.)

Absorption imaging of a single atom    [PDF]

E. W. Streed, A. Jechow, B. G. Norton, D. Kielpinski

Absorption imaging has played a key role in the advancement of science from
van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of red blood cells to modern observations of dust
clouds in stellar nebula. Here we show the first absorption imaging of a single
atom isolated in vacuum. The simplicity of this system lets us compare our
results directly to quantum theory, unlike recent work on absorption imaging of
single molecules. The observed image contrast of 3.1(3)% achieved the maximum
allowed by quantum theory for our setup, while the imaging resolution was on
the order of the 370 nm illumination wavelength. The absorption of photons by
single atoms is of immediate interest for quantum information processing (QIP).
Our results also point out new opportunities in imaging of light-sensitive
samples both in the optical and x-ray regimes. In particular, the dynamics of
chromatin in living cells could be imaged without delivering a lethal UV dose.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.5280