Measurement of Berry's phase using an atom interferometer
Abstract
We report on the demonstration of Berry's phase in an atomic state interacting with a laser field. We draw an analogy between this system and that of a spin interacting with a directionally varying magnetic field. This allows us to identify an effective magnetic quantum number for the atom-light system that governs the maximum Berry phase the atomic state can acquire. We realize two systems that have different effective magnetic quantum numbers, and use a recently developed atom interferometer to make measurements of Berry's phase.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review A
- Pub Date:
- September 1999
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevA.60.R1783
- Bibcode:
- 1999PhRvA..60.1783W
- Keywords:
-
- 03.75.Dg;
- 03.65.Bz;
- Atom and neutron interferometry