Document Type
Article
Version
Final Published Version
Publication Title
Physical Review Letters
Volume
75
Publication Date
1995
Abstract
An experiment is described which is an analog of Young's double-slit interferometer using an atomic electron instead of light. Two phase-coherent laser pulses are used to excite a single electron into a state of the form of a pair of Rydberg wave packets that are initially on opposite sides of the orbit. The two wave packets propagate and spread until they completely overlap, then a third phase-coherent laser pulse probes the resulting fringe pattern. The relative phase of the two wave packets is varied so that the interference produces a single localized electron wave packet on one side of the orbit or the other.
Publisher's Statement
© 1995 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.75.1252
Citation
Michael W. Noel and C. R. Stroud, Jr., "Young's double-slit interferometry within an atom," Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 1252 (1995).
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.1252