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Published on: October 11, 2016
Return to the Origin as a Probe of Atomic Phase Coherence
Clément Hainaut1, Isam Manai1, Radu Chicireanu1
1Université de Lille, CNRS, UMR 8523-PhLAM-Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers Atomes et Molécules, F-59000 Lille, France.
Abstract:
We report on the observation of the coherent enhancement of the return probability ["enhanced return to the origin" (ERO)] in a periodically kicked cold-atom gas. By submitting an atomic wave packet to a pulsed, periodically shifted, laser standing wave, we induce an oscillation of ERO in time that is explained in terms of a periodic, reversible dephasing in the weak-localization interference sequences responsible for ERO. Monitoring the temporal decay of ERO, we exploit its quantum-coherent nature to quantify the decoherence rate of the atomic system.
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