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Originally published in Science Express on 26 February 2004
Science 26 March 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5666, pp. 1992 - 1994
DOI: 10.1126/science.1095232
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Reports

Deterministic Generation of Single Photons from One Atom Trapped in a Cavity

J. McKeever, A. Boca, A. D. Boozer, R. Miller, J. R. Buck, A. Kuzmich, H. J. Kimble*

A single cesium atom trapped within the mode of an optical cavity is used to generate single photons on demand. The photon wave packets are emitted as a Gaussian beam with temporal profile and repetition rate controlled by external driving fields. Each generation attempt is inferred to succeed with a probability near unity, whereas the efficiency for creating an unpolarized photon in the total cavity output is 0.69 ± 0.10, as limited by passive cavity losses. An average of 1.4 x 104 photons are produced by each trapped atom. These results constitute an important step in quantum information science, for example, toward the realization of distributed quantum networking.

Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics 12-33, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hjkimble{at}caltech.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)