Hannover 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 8: Quantum Effects: Interference and Correlations II / Entanglement and Decoherence I

Q 8.7: Vortrag

Montag, 8. März 2010, 18:15–18:30, A 310

Single spontaneous emission inducing motional coherence of atoms — •Jiri Tomkovic¹, Michael Schreiber¹, Joachim Welte¹, Jörg Schmiedmayer², and Markus K. Oberthaler¹ — ¹Kirchhoff-Institut für Physik, Im Neuenheimer Feld 227, Heidelberg — ²Atominstitut der österreichischen Universitäten, Stadionallee 2, 1020 Wien

Spontaneous emission of a photon leads to a momentum transfer to the emitting atom resulting in an incoherent momentum distribution of an atomic ensemble. In case the atoms are close to a mirror, the situation can drastically change since directly emitted and reflected light can principally not be distinguished in certain directions. Thus at distances of few micrometers the spontaneous emission of a single photon leads to a coherent superposition of two momentum states of the atom. We will present our experimental results revealing the expected coherence.