Abstract

Forces between atoms usually decrease rapidly with increasing interparticle distance. This situation changes dramatically when the atoms are placed inside a resonant mode of a high-finesse microcavity, which is pumped by an external laser. For strong atom-field coupling, the position of one atom in the cavity mode has a huge impact on the intracavity light field [1]. Therefore, one atom strongly influences the light force on other atoms in the cavity mode. This can be interpreted as a long-range force between the atoms. The range of the force is only limited by the cavity length, which is 117 µm in our case. The force acting on the atoms can be monitored by observing the cavity light field via the light transmitted through the cavity.

© 2000 IEEE