Experimental progress in optical manipulation of single atoms for cavity QED

Cavity QED, as a fundamental system and research field, not only illuminates the primary aspects of decoherence and coherence in quantum dynamics, but also advances quantum information science. Manipulation of single atoms, in the context of cavity QED, is the essential element and has been becoming a hot issue for the past two decades. In this review paper, we will concentrate on the experimental aspects for manipulating the neutral atoms strongly coupled to a high-finesse cavity in the optical regime, including atomic cooling and trapping, different configurations of atom transportation and the wide variety of quantum outgrowths based on cavity QED, such as one atom laser, single photon source, etc. The cavity QED system at Shanxi University is briefly introduced.