Abstract

The availability of single atoms (ions) for repeated detection [1] has spawned measurements of temporal trajectories of a single ion driven on a weak transition and scattering light on a resonance transition [2, 3]. The alternating intervals of present and absent resonant fluorescence (“bright” and “dark”) of stochastic duration are connected by quantum jumps of the ion to and from its metastable state. With a Ba' ion driven on its ²S_l/2 – ²D_5/2 E2 transition (Fig. 1) by 1.76µm light (λ₃), we have observed trajectories whose mean duration of the bright intervals τ₀ is cither much longer or shorter than that of dark intervals, τ₁ (Fig. 2). as depending on the tuning of the visible light.

© 1996 IEEE