Cavity-EIT with single atoms

Coherent dark states, such as electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), can be used to control nonlinear effects for light fields. So far, these phenomena have been studied in media involving a macroscopic number of atoms. In order to scale down these systems to the single quantum level of matter (single atoms) and light (single photons) one has to enhance the matter-light interaction. We report on a new experiment where we use a high finesse optical cavity in which an exactly defined number of atoms can be coupled to the mode of the cavity. We discuss prospects for cavity-based EIT with single atoms and will present its first experimental observation.