Improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio of laser-induced-fluorescence photon-counting signals of single-atoms magneto-optical trap

Abstract

Employing grating extended-cavity diode lasers as the cooling/trapping and repumping lasers for preparing and manipulating single atoms, we have implemented a large-magnetic-gradient caesium magneto-optical trap (MOT). To detect and evaluate single caesium atoms trapped in MOT, laser-induced-fluorescence (LIF) photons of trapped atoms driven by MOT lasers are collected and counted by an avalanched photodiode worked in photon-counting mode. The dependences of LIF photon-counting signals of single atoms on a cooling laser's intensity, frequency detuning and frequency fluctuation are analysed and investigated. Remarkable improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio of LIF photon-counting signals is achieved by optimizing the cooling laser's intensity and frequency detuning and using the modulation-free polarization spectroscopic technique with feedback to both the slow channel (piezoelectric transducer channel with typical bandwidth of ∼2 kHz in the grating extended cavity) and the fast channel (current modulation channel with typical bandwidth of ∼200 kHz in the current driver).