Normal-Mode Spectroscopy of a Single-Bound-Atom–Cavity System

Abstract

The energy-level structure of a single atom strongly coupled to the mode of a high-finesse optical cavity is investigated. The atom is stored in an intracavity dipole trap and cavity cooling is used to compensate for inevitable heating. Two well-resolved normal modes are observed both in the cavity transmission and the trap lifetime. The experiment is in good agreement with a Monte Carlo simulation, demonstrating our ability to localize the atom to within lambda/10 at a cavity antinode.