Photon Collection from a Trapped Ion in a Cavity*

A micron-scale ion trap is integrated with a 2~mm Fabry-P\'erot cavity to enhance the spontaneous emission from a single trapped ytterbium ion. Exciting the atom from the side of the cavity with a near resonant laser beam, we measure the scattered emission rate from the fundamental, undriven cavity mode. We collect roughly 500 times more fluorescence compared to the expected free-space emission into the same solid angle subtended by the cavity mode. Progress towards a protocol for generating entanglement between the ion spin state and the output cavity photon polarization is presented, as well as a discussion of applying this method to improve the success probability of entangling remote ions [1,2]. \\[4pt] [1] L.-M. Duan and C. Monroe, \emph{Rev. Mod. Phys.} \textbf{82}, 1209 (2010) \\[0pt] [2]. J. D. Sterk, Ph.D. thesis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (2011)