Deterministic coupling of single ions to an optical cavity

By combining the technologies of ion trapping and cavity QED, we have achieved deterministic coupling of single ions to an optical field. By Doppler cooling, the spread of the ion’s wavepacket was reduced to 42 nm, corresponding to Lamb–Dicke localization. As an application, we have measured the three-dimensional structure of cavity eigenmodes with sub-wavelength precision. The setup presented is suited for the controlled coherent processing of atomic and photonic quantum information. Examples include the triggered generation of single photons and two-ion quantum gates. Received: 20 August 2002 / Revised version: 16 December 2002 / Published online: 26 February 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-89/32905-200, E-mail: keller@mpq.mpg.de