Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2018–2021 (1999)

Search for Off-Diagonal Density Matrix Elements for Atoms in a Supersonic Beam

Abstract

References

Citing Articles (12)

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Richard A. Rubenstein, Al-Amin Dhirani, David A. Kokorowski, Tony D. Roberts, Edward T. Smith, Winthrop W. Smith^*, Herbert J. Bernstein^†, Jana Lehner, Subhadeep Gupta, and David E. Pritchard
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Received 28 October 1998; revised 19 January 1999; published in the issue dated 8 March 1999

We demonstrate the absence of off-diagonal elements for the density matrix of a supersonic Na atomic beam, thus showing that there are no coherent wave packets emerging from this source. We used a differentially detuned separated oscillatory field longitudinal interferometer to search for off-diagonal density matrix elements in the longitudinal energy/momentum basis. Our study places a stringent lower bound on their possible size over an off-diagonal energy range from 0 to 100 kHz.

URL:

http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.2018

DOI:

10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.2018

PACS:

03.75.Dg, 39.10.+j

^*Present address: Physics Department, University of Connecticut U-46, 2152 Hillside Road, Storrs, CT 06269.

^†Present address: Hampshire College and Institute for Science and Interdisciplinary Studies, Amherst, MA 01002.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2018–2021 (1999)

Search for Off-Diagonal Density Matrix Elements for Atoms in a Supersonic Beam