Abstract

Isolated individual particles are playing an important role in spectroscopic investigations of light matter interactions. The beginning of experimental efforts is marked by the observation of single trapped ions by Neuhauser et al. [NEU 78], Confinement of neutral atoms has been more cumbersome since trapping forces are much smaller. Recently the observation of discrete fluorescence levels was reported by Hu et al. [HU 94] in the most success-- ful neutral atom storage device, a magnetooptic trap (MOT). The number of trapped atoms can be inferred from the detected intensity.

© 1995 Optical Society of America