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Updated: May 11, 2026

Measurement of Quantum Interference in a Silicon Ring Resonator Photon Source
Published on: April 4, 2017
Direct measurement of the Wigner time delay for the scattering of light by a single atom
R Bourgain1, J Pellegrino, S Jennewein
1Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d’Optique, CNRS, Univ Paris Sud, 2 Avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
Abstract:
We have implemented the Gedanken experiment of an individual atom scattering a wave packet of near-resonant light, and measured the associated Wigner time delay as a function of the frequency of the light. In our apparatus, the atom behaves as a two-level system and we have found delays as large as 42 ns at resonance, limited by the lifetime of the excited state. This delay is an important parameter in the problem of collective near-resonant scattering by an ensemble of interacting particles, which is encountered in many areas of physics.
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