Integrated atom detector: Single atoms and photon statistics

Abstract

We demonstrate a robust fiber-optics-based fluorescence detector, fully integrated on an atom chip, which detects single atoms propagating in a guide with 66% efficiency. We characterize the detector performance and the atom flux by analyzing the photon statistics. Near-perfect photon antibunching proves that single atoms are detected, and allows us to study the second-order intensity correlation function of the fluorescence over three orders of magnitude in atomic density.