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Atom Interferometers and Atomic Coherence
Author(s) -
Pritchard D.E.,
Chapman M.S.,
Hammond T.D.,
Kokorowski D.A.,
Lenef A.,
Rubenstein R.A.,
Smith E.T.,
Schmiedmayer J.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
fortschritte der physik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.469
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1521-3978
pISSN - 0015-8208
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-3978(199811)46:6/8<801::aid-prop801>3.0.co;2-p
Subject(s) - astronomical interferometer , atom interferometer , physics , interferometry , interference (communication) , photon , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , double slit experiment , realization (probability) , atom (system on chip) , feynman diagram , range (aeronautics) , quantum , quantum mechanics , optics , computer science , mathematics , computer network , channel (broadcasting) , statistics , materials science , composite material , embedded system
Atom interferometers are powerful tools for the study of fundamental issues in quantum mechanics. This paper describes the use of our atom interferometer [1] for an experimental realization of Feynman's gedanken experiment in which the observation of photons scattered off of particles emerging from a double slit is used to obtain which path information. This determination, in principal, of the particle's path, destroys any interference effects downstream. The interference can be regained by observing only those particles which scatter a photon into a small range of final directions.