The following article is Open access

Interfacing light and single atoms with a lens

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Published 7 April 2009 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd
, , Citation Meng Khoon Tey et al 2009 New J. Phys. 11 043011 DOI 10.1088/1367-2630/11/4/043011

1367-2630/11/4/043011

Abstract

We characterize the interaction between a single atom or similar microscopic system and a light field via the scattering ratio. For this, we first derive the electrical field in a strongly focused Gaussian light beam, and then consider the atomic response. Following the simple scattering model, the fraction of scattered optical power for a weak coherent probe field leads to unphysical scattering ratios above 1 in the strong focusing regime. A refined model considering interference between the exciting and scattered field into finite-sized detectors or optical fibers is presented, and compared with experimental extinction measurements for various focusing strengths.

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