Single spontaneous photon as a coherent beamsplitter for an atomic matter-wave

Nature Physics

Volumn 7, Issue 5, 2011, Pages 379-382

  Tomkovič, Jiří ^a   Schreiber, Michael ^b   Welte, Joachim ^a   Kiffner, Martin ^c   Schmiedmayer, Jörg ^d   Oberthaler, Markus K ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG   (Germany)

^b UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH   (Germany)

^c TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH   (Germany)

^d TU WIEN   (Austria)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EXCITED STATES; GROUND STATE; INTERFEROMETRY; MIRRORS; PARTICLE BEAMS; PHOTONS; SPONTANEOUS EMISSION;

ATOM INTERFEROMETRY; ATOMIC MOTION; COHERENT SUPERPOSITIONS; MIRROR SURFACES; PHOTON EMISSIONS; PHOTON RECOILS; RESONANCE FLUORESCENCES; SINGLE PHOTONS;

ATOMS;

EID: 79955645275     PISSN: 17452473     EISSN: 17452481     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1961     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. Milonni, P. W. The Quantum Vacuum (Academic, 1994).
2. Milonni, P. W. & Knight, P. L. Spontaneous emission between mirrors. Opt. Commun. 9, 119-122 (1973).
3. Drexhage, K. H. Progress in Optics Vol. 12, 163-192, 192a, 193-232 (Elsevier, 1974).
4. Goy, P., Raimond, J., Gross, M. & Haroche, S. Observation of cavity-enhanced single-atom spontaneous emission. Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 1903-1906 (1983).
5. Eschner, J., Raab, C., Schmidt-Kaler, F. & Blatt, R. Light interference from single atoms and their mirror images. Nature 413, 495-498 (2001). (Pubitemid 32938742)
6. Eschner, J. Sub-wavelength resolution of optical fields probed by single trapped ions: Interference, phase modulation, and which-way information. Eur. Phys. J. D 22, 341-345 (2003). (Pubitemid 36399721)
7. Pfau, T., Spälter, S., Kurtsiefer, C., Ekstrom, C. R. & Mlynek, J. Loss of spatial coherence by a single spontaneous emission. Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 1223-1226 (1994). (Pubitemid 24976427)
8. Chapman, M. S. et al. Photon scattering from atoms in an atom interferometer: Coherence lost and regained. Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 3783-3787 (1995).
9. Kokorowski, D. A., Cronin, A. D., Roberts, T. D. & Pritchard, D. E. From single- to multiple-photon decoherence in an atom interferometer. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2191-2195 (2001). (Pubitemid 32277959)
10. Oberthaler, M. et al. Dynamical diffraction of atomic matter waves by crystals of light. Phys. Rev. A 60, 456-472 (1999). (Pubitemid 129690802)
11. Bohr, N. in Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist (ed. Schilpp, P.A.) (Library of Living Philosophers, Evanston, 1949);
12. reprinted in Quantum Theory and Measurement (eds Wheeler, J. A. and Zurek, W. H.) 9-49 (Princeton Univ. Press, 1983).
13. Bertet, P. et al. A complementarity experiment with an interferometer at the quantum-classical boundary. Nature 411, 166-170 (2001). (Pubitemid 32455170)
14. Cronin, A. D., Schmiedmayer, J. & Pritchard, D. E. Optics and interferometry with atoms and molecules. Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 1051-1129 (2009).
15. Martin, P., Oldaker, B., Miklich, A. & Pritchard, D. Bragg scattering of atoms from standing light-wave. Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 515-518 (1988).
16. Morawitz, H. Self-coupling of a two-level system by a mirror. Phys. Rev. 187, 1792-1796 (1969).
17. Di Stefano, O., Savasta, S. & Girlanda, R. Three-dimensional electromagnetic field quantization in absorbing and dispersive bounded dielectrics. Phys. Rev. A 61, 023803 (2000).
18. Aspect, A., Arimondo, E., Kaiser, R., Vansteenkiste, N. & Cohen-Tannoudji, C. Laser cooling below the one-photon recoil energy by velocity-selective coherent population trapping. Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 826-829 (1988).