Single spontaneous photon as a coherent beamsplitter for atomic matterwave

Details Single spontaneous photon as a coherent beamsplitter for atomic matterwave Single spontaneous photon as a coherent beamsplitter for atomic matterwave

2010-12-21

arxiv.org/abs/1012.4704v1

Physics

Quantum Physics

main text: 5 pages, 4 figure; supplementary information: 8 pages, 1 figure

Scientific paper

10.1038/NPHYS1961

Spontaneous emission is the process by which an atom in an excited state undergoes a transition to the ground state and emits a single photon. Associated with the emission is a change of the atomic momentum due to photon recoil. This has been utilized for laser cooling of atoms and even macroscopic objects. It can be modified close to surfaces and in cavities. In the case of a localized ion in front of a mirror the coherence of the spontaneously emitted light has been reported. In free space spontaneous emission has been utilized to destroy motional coherence due to the uncontrolled character of this process. Here we report on the direct observation of motional coherence of a single free atom induced by a single spontaneous emission event close to a mirror surface. The coherence is directly shown by atom interferometric techniques and is quantitatively explained by a simple and a comprehensive quantum mechanical treatment. If the photon is regarded as a beamsplitter for an atomic matterwave the experiment extends the original Gedanken experiment by Einstein. There the detection of the motion of a microscopic slit due to the recoil allows the determination of the path of a single interfering quanta and thus destroys the interference signal. In our experiment we study the case where the slit is in a robust coherent superposition of the two recoils associated with the two paths of the quanta.

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