Abstract

Since trapped, laser-cooled ions can be strongly localized, have long lived internal state coherence as well as extremely long trapping lifetimes, they are very attractive for Cavity Quantum ElectroDynamics (CQED) studies and for the realization of efficient light-matter interfaces. Consequently, single ions positioned in an optical cavity have been used for precise tomography of various transverse cavity modes [1] and for the generation of single photons [2], Recently, we have furthermore demonstrated collective strong coupling between ensembles of ions laser-cooled to a self-organized crystalline structure, called ion Coulomb crystals, and single photons in the fundamental mode of an optical cavity [3]. In these, as well as in the experiments described below, a linear rf ion trap incorporating a moderately high-finesse optical cavity along the rf field free axis was used [4].

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