We demonstrate the trapping of a single ion in the focus of a deep parabolic mirror that covers 81% of the solid angle surrounding the ion. Accounting for the reflectivity of the mirror we infer a photon collection efficiency of 54.8% for our setup. The underlying experimentally detected maximum fluorescence rate is 1.91 x 10(6) s(-1) from a single Yb-174(+) ion, mainly limited by the quantum efficiency of our photon detector. Besides the high collection efficiency, the integration of an ion trap into a parabolic mirror is a key ingredient for efficient coupling of light to a single ion in free space

We demonstrate the generation of an optical dipole wave suitable for the process of efficiently coupling single quanta of light and matter in free space. We employ a parabolic mirror for the conversion of a transverse beam mode to a focused dipole wave and show the required spatial and temporal shaping of the mode incident onto the mirror. The results include a proof of principle correction of the parabolic mirror's aberrations. For the application of exciting an atom with a single photon pulse we demonstrate the creation of a suitable temporal pulse envelope. We infer coupling strengths of 89% and success probabilities of up to 87% for the application of exciting a single atom for the current experimental parameters.The final publication is available at www.epj.org.

We report on the demonstration of a lightmatter interface coupling light to a single Yb-174(+) ion in free space. The interface is realized through a parabolic mirror partially surrounding the ion. It transforms a La-guerre- Gaussian beam into a linear dipole wave converging at the mirror's focus. By measuring the non-linear response of the atomic transition, we deduce the power required for reaching an upper-level population of 1/4 to be 692 +/- 20pW at half linewidth detuning from the atomic resonance. Performing this measurement while scanning the ion through the focus provides a map of the focal intensity distribution. From the measured power, we infer a coupling efficiency of 7.2 +/- 0.2% on the linear dipole transition when illuminating from half solid angle, being among the best coupling efficiencies reported for a single atom in free space