Abstract
Quantum jumps (sudden changes of quantum state) have been observed in isolated samples of one or a few atomic ions [1–4]. The method of detecting quantum jumps uses a kind of optical-optical double resonance originally proposed by Dehmelt [5]. Consider an atom, such as Hg+, which has both a strongly allowed transition (at wavelength λ1) and a weakly allowed transition (at wavelength λ2) from the ground state (see Fig. 1). Assume that radiation is present at both λ1 and λ2. The atom fluoresces strongly at λ1 until it absorbs a λ2 photon and makes a transition to the metastable state. The λ1 fluorescence is shut off until the atom decays to the ground state.
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© 1987 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Itano, W.M., Bergquist, J.C., Hulet, R.G., Wineland, D.J. (1987). The Observation of Quantum Jumps in Hg+ . In: Persson, W., Svanberg, S. (eds) Laser Spectroscopy VIII. Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol 55. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-47973-4_31
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-47973-4_31
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