Blackbody Excitation of an Atom Controlled by a Tunable Cavity

Lai, Kin Seng; Hinds, E. A.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.81.2671

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Atoms may also be used as sensitive quantum probes of coherent thermal fields [19] or even of the correlated properties of thermal emission [46,47]. An alternative geometry would be a thin vapour cell [38,48], which is a simple realization of a dielectric cavity, and an example of a situation where the temperature-dependence of surface interaction should depend on the surface geometry [49]. The temperature of each oven is measured with thermocouples, whose location can be moved, in order to evaluate the temperature homogeneity of the oven.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Casimir–Polder interactions in the presence of thermally excited surface modes

et al. 2014

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The temperature dependence of the Casimir-Polder interaction addresses fundamental issues for understanding vacuum and thermal fluctuations. It is highly sensitive to surface waves, which, in the near field, govern the thermal emission of a hot surface. Here we use optical reflection spectroscopy to monitor the atom-surface interaction potential between a Cs*(7D 3/2 ) atom and a hot sapphire surface at distances of B100 nm. In our experiments, that explore a large range of temperatures (500-1,000 K), the surface is at thermal equilibrium with the vacuum. The observed increase of the interaction with temperature, by up to 50%, relies on the coupling between atomic virtual transitions in the infrared range and thermally excited surface-polariton modes. We extrapolate our findings to a broad distance range, from the isolated atom to the short distances relevant to physical chemistry. Our work also opens the prospect of controlling atom-surface interactions by engineering thermal fields.

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Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Casimir–Polder interactions in the presence of thermally excited surface modes

et al. 2014

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“…Note that an indium tin oxide is transparent to visible and near infrared light. Within a wide wavelength range 7 µm< λ < 100 µm around the characteristic wavelength λ c = 62.8 µm (the latter corresponds to the characteristic frequency ω c = c/2a = 3 × 10 13 rad/s), giving the main contribution into the Casimir force at zero temperature [3], the reflectivity of indium tin oxide is below 80% [51]. Note that the second parameter of the problem, first Matsubara frequency, is ω M = 2πk B T /h = 2.45 × 10 14 rad/s, i.e.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlation of energy and free energy for the thermal Casimir force between real metals

2002

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The energy of fluctuating electromagnetic field is investigated for the thermal Casimir force acting between parallel plates made of real metal. It is proved that for nondissipative media with temperature independent dielectric permittivity the energy at nonzero temperature comprises of the (renormalized) energies of the zero-point and thermal photons. In this manner photons can be considered as collective elementary excitations of the matter of plates and electromagnetic field. If the dielectric permittivity depends on temperature the energy contains additional terms proportional to the derivatives of ε with respect to temperature, and the quasiparticle interpretation of the fluctuating field is not possible. The correlation between energy and free energy is considered. Previous calculations of the Casimir energy in the framework of the Lifshitz formula at zero temperature and optical tabulated data supplemented by the Drude model at room temperature are analysed. It is demonstrated that this quantity is not a good approximation either for the free energy or the energy. A physical interpretation of this hybrid quantity is suggested. The contradictory results in the recent literature on whether the zero-frequency term of the Lifshitz formula for the perpendicular polarized modes has any effective contribution to the physical quantities are discussed. Four main approaches to the resolution of this problem are specified. The precise expressions for entropy of the fluctuating field between plates made of real metal are obtained, which helps to decide between the different approaches. The conclusion is that the Lifshitz formula supplemented by the plasma model and the surface impedance approach are best suited to describe the thermal Casimir force between real metals.

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“…Such a resonance in cavity QED, typical of a nonzero temperature surface, could even be expected for an atom in the ground state. Note that, conversely, the colored bath of thermal photons, responsible for changes in the lifetime [24], is not expected to induce resonant effects.…”

Section: Resonant Van Der Waals Repulsion Between Excited Cs Atoms Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resonant van der Waals Repulsion between Excited Cs Atoms and Sapphire Surface

et al. 1999

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We explore a situation where the van der Waals long-range atom-surface interaction is repulsive. This repulsion originates in a resonant coupling between a virtual emission at 12.15 mm of a Cs ‫ء‬ ͑6D 3͞2 ͒ atom and a virtual excitation of a surface polariton in sapphire. The experimental evidence is based upon the analysis of the spectroscopic response of Cs* in the near-infrared range with a technique that probes a distance range ϳ100 nm away from the sapphire surface. We also demonstrate the critical dependence of atom-surface forces on the sapphire crystal orientation. PACS numbers: 34.50.Dy, 12.20.Fv, 71.36. + c The van der Waals (vW) force between neutral polarizable systems [1,2] represents a universal interaction of paramount importance in numerous fields of physics, chemistry, and biology. Its attractive character is essential for the cohesion of many chemical or biological systems. vW attraction between atomic systems and metallic or dielectric bodies is also a fundamental property in cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) [3], and its main characteristics have been experimentally studied by means of mechanical approaches (atomic beam deflection produced by surfaces [4,5], energy threshold in atomic mirrors [6]), or, in our group, spectroscopic approaches (spectral monitoring of surface-induced atomic level shifts [7-10]).In the nonretarded regime, the vW interaction between an atom and a surface originates in the quantum fluctuations of the atomic dipole: The fluctuating dipole polarizes the surface, and induces a dipole image instantaneously correlated with the atomic dipole. This near-field image is responsible for the attractive character of the vW interaction, which scales in 1͞z 3 (z is the atom-surface distance) [1].Is it possible to turn this near-field attraction into a repulsion? The answer is yes, if a resonant coupling between the fluctuating atomic dipole and a surface excitation can occur [11][12][13]. For a dispersive dielectric medium with a complex permittivity´͑v͒, the well-known electrostatic image coefficient S ͑´2 1͒͑͞´1 1͒ (with 0 # S # 1) has to be generalized to a complex frequency-dependent surface response [13]:whose resonances ("surface polaritons" [14]) are determined by the poles of S͑v͒.Consider an excited atom for which one of the dipoleallowed deexcitation channels (at frequency v a ) is near resonant with a surface polariton. Because of nonradiative, virtual coupling between the atom and surface (atomic decay followed by surface excitation), the surface response at frequency v a is magnified, implying a dielectric image coefficient, 2Re͓S͑v a ͔͒, possibly larger than one-the value obtained for an ideal reflector. Because of the resonant enhancement, S is complex and the image dipole is dephased as well. When this image is phase reversed, the near-field vW attraction is turned into a near-field vW repulsion, also scaling in 1͞z 3 . This is one among the rare situations of a long-range, state-selective repulsion exerted by a cavity wall on an atom, at distances spanning f...

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Blackbody Excitation of an Atom Controlled by a Tunable Cavity

Cited by 14 publications

References 22 publications

Casimir–Polder interactions in the presence of thermally excited surface modes

Casimir–Polder interactions in the presence of thermally excited surface modes

Correlation of energy and free energy for the thermal Casimir force between real metals

Resonant van der Waals Repulsion between Excited Cs Atoms and Sapphire Surface

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