Abstract

Now that a single atom or ion can be observed spectroscopically, either in a faint atomic beam or in an electromagnetic trap,^1,2 a fundamental test of an atom’s quantum statistical behavior is at hand. An important example is the observation of anti- bunching³ in resonance fluorescence—an effect that is based on the properties of a single atom and erased by the presence of other excited atoms.

© 1986 Optical Society of America