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

被引：0

作者：

Tomkovic, Jiri ^{[1
]}

Schreiber, Michael ^{[2
]}

Welte, Joachim ^{[1
]}

Kiffner, Martin ^{[3
]}

Schmiedmayer, Joerg ^{[4
]}

Oberthaler, Markus K. ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Heidelberg, Kirchhoff Inst Phys, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany

[2] Univ Munich, D-80799 Munich, Germany

[3] Tech Univ Munich, Dept Phys 1, D-85747 Garching, Germany

[4] TU Wien, Vienna Ctr Quantum Sci & Technol, Atominst, A-1020 Vienna, Austria

来源：

NATURE PHYSICS | 2011年 / 7卷 / 05期

关键词：

SPONTANEOUS EMISSION; INTERFEROMETER; LIGHT; INTERFERENCE; SCATTERING; MIRROR;

D O I：

10.1038/NPHYS1961

中图分类号：

O4 [物理学];

学科分类号：

0702 ;

摘要：

In spontaneous emission 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(1). Photon emission can be modified close to surfaces(2,3) and in cavities(4). For an ion, localized in front of a mirror, coherence of the emitted resonance fluorescence has been reported(5,6). Previous experiments demonstrated that spontaneous emission destroys motional coherence(7-9). Here we report on motional coherence created by a single spontaneous emission event close to a mirror surface. The coherence in the free atomic motion is verified by atom interferometry(10). The photon can be regarded as a beamsplitter for an atomic matter-wave and consequently our experiment extends the original recoiling slit Gedanken experiment by Einstein(11,12) to the case where the slit is in a robust coherent superposition of the two recoils associated with the two paths of the quanta.

引用

页码：379 / 382

页数：4

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