Excitation of an Atomic Electron to a Coherent Superposition of Macroscopically Distinct States

Authors

Michael W. Noel, Bryn Mawr CollegeFollow
C. R. Stroud Jr.

Document Type

Article

Version

Final Published Version

Publication Title

Physical Review Letters

Volume

77

Publication Date

1996

Abstract

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 mm 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.

Publisher's Statement

© 1996 by the American Physical Society. The publisher's version of the article can be found at http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.1913

Citation

Michael W. Noel and C. R. Stroud, Jr., "Excitation of an Atomic Electron to a Coherent Superposition of Macroscopically Distinct States," Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 1913 (1996).

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.1913