Photon Collection from a Trapped Ion in a Cavity

A micron-scale ion trap is integrated with a 2 mm Fabry-Pérot cavity to enhance the spontaneous emission from a single trapped ytterbium ion. Exciting the atom from the side of the cavity with a near resonant laser beam, we measure the scattered emission rate from the fundamental, undriven cavity mode. We collect roughly 500 times more fluorescence compared to the expected free-space emission into the same solid angle subtended by the cavity mode. Progress towards a protocol for generating entanglement between the ion spin state and the output cavity photon polarization is presented, as well as a discussion of applying this method to improve the success probability of entangling remote ions,.

This work is supported by grants from the U.S. Army Research Office with funding from IARPA and the MURI program; the NSF PIF Program; the NSF Physics Frontier Center at JQI; and the European Commission AQUTE program.