Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 1913–1916 (1996)Excitation of an Atomic Electron to a Coherent Superposition of Macroscopically Distinct StatesReceived 15 November 1995; published in the issue dated 2 September 1996 An atomic electron is prepared in a state closely analogous to Schrödinger's coherent superposition of “live cat” and “dead cat.” The electronic state is a coherent superposition of two spatially localized wave packets separated by approximately 0.4 μm at the opposite extremes of a Kepler orbit. State-selective ionization is used to verify that only every other atomic level is populated in the “cat state,” and a Ramsey fringe measurement is used to verify the coherence of the superposition. © 1996 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.1913
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.1913
PACS:
03.65.Bz, 32.80.Rm, 42.50.Md
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