Darmstadt 2008 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 29: Poster Quanteneffekte

Q 29.7: Poster

Tuesday, March 11, 2008, 16:30–19:00, Poster C2

Coherent beam splitting with a single spontaneously emitted photon — •Jiri Tomkovic¹, Michael Schreiber¹, Inka Benthin¹, Arne Schietinger¹, Jörg Schmiedmayer², and Markus Oberthaler¹ — ¹Kirchhoff Institut für Physik,Universität Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg — ²Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten, TU-Wien, Stadionallee 2, A-1020 Vienna, Austria

Spontaneous emission of a photon leads to a momentum transfer to the emitting atom. In free space this leads to a incoherent momentum distribution of the atom which is typically used in laser cooling schemes. In case the atom is 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.