2007/03/13 by Priscilla Cañizares, P. Cañizares, Tobias Görler +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #cond-mat.other #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1134/s1054660x0707002x
published as Laser Physics 17, 903-907 (2007). · 5 pages, one figure, submitted to Laser Physics, special issue in memory of Herbert Walther
arxiv created 2007/03/13 · openalex publication_date 2007/07/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The spatial coherence of an atomic wavepacket can be detected in scattered photons, even when the center-of-mass motion is in the quantum coherent superposition of two distant, nonoverlapping wavepackets. Spatial coherence manifests itself in the power spectrum of the emitted photons, whose spectral components can exhibit interference fringes as a function of the emission angle. The contrast and the phase of this interference pattern provide information about the quantum state of the center of mass of the scattering atom.