Double atom interferometer
Abstract
A double atom interferometer based upon the Stern-Gerlach method in which the first interferometer acts as a ``nonordinary'' source for the second one is described. Experiments have been carried out with a wide-velocity-distribution beam of metastable hydrogen atoms, using two different operating modes: (i) continuous mode in which the magnitude of the magnetic field in the first interferometer is fixed whereas that of the second one is scanned; (ii) time-of-flight mode in which both magnetic fields are fixed. In the former case lateral interference patterns appear, in the latter one an overmodulation of the time-of-flight distribution is observed. It is predicted that this overmodulation becomes more and more marked as the number of interferometers is increased, leading to a limiting behavior characteristic of a quantum Zeno effect.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review A
- Pub Date:
- November 1998
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevA.58.4039
- Bibcode:
- 1998PhRvA..58.4039M
- Keywords:
-
- 03.75.Dg;
- Atom and neutron interferometry