Abstract

Coupling a single photon to a single ion using a parabolic mirror has recently become a promising issue for free-space interaction of light and matter [1,2]. But due to imperfect production processes, these mirrors can induce strong wavefront errors. Here, we experimentally verify an interferometric measurement method reported earlier [3] for determining the surface errors. This verification is performed by an incoherent fluorescence measurement yielding the mirror’s excitation point-spread-function (PSF). Furthermore, we report a spatial coupling efficiency of about 27% using half of the solid angle relevant for a linear dipole transition.

© 2015 IEEE