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Updated: May 28, 2026

Resonance Fluorescence of an InGaAs Quantum Dot in a Planar Cavity Using Orthogonal Excitation and Detection
Published on: October 13, 2017
Single atom as a mirror of an optical cavity
G Hétet1, L Slodička, M Hennrich
1Institute for Experimental Physics, University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Abstract:
By tightly focusing a laser field onto a single cold ion trapped in front of a far-distant dielectric mirror, we could observe a quantum electrodynamic effect whereby the ion behaves as the optical mirror of a Fabry-Pérot cavity. We show that the amplitude of the laser field is significantly altered due to a modification of the electromagnetic mode structure around the atom in a novel regime in which the laser intensity is already changed by the atom alone. We propose a direct application of this system as a quantum memory for single photons.
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