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From single- to multiple-pPhoton decoherence in an atom interferometer
D A Kokorowski1, A D Cronin, T D Roberts
1Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|April 6, 2001
Abstract:
We measure the decoherence of a spatially separated atomic superposition due to spontaneous photon scattering. We observe a qualitative change in decoherence versus separation as the number of scattered photons increases, and verify quantitatively the decoherence rate constant in the many-photon limit. Our results illustrate an evolution of decoherence consistent with general models developed for a broad class of decoherence phenomena.