Search for off-diagonal density matrix elements for atoms in a supersonic beam

Authors
Rubenstein, RA Dhirani, AA Kokorowski, DA Roberts, TD Smith, ET Smith, WW Bernstein, HJ Lehner, J Gupta, S Pritchard, DE
Citation
Ra. Rubenstein et al., Search for off-diagonal density matrix elements for atoms in a supersonic beam, PHYS REV L, 82(10), 1999, pp. 2018-2021
Citations number
23
Categorie Soggetti
Physics
Journal title
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
ISSN journal
00319007 → ACNP
Volume
82
Issue
10
Year of publication
1999
Pages
2018 - 2021
Database
ISI
SICI code
0031-9007(19990308)82:10<2018:SFODME>2.0.ZU;2-F
Abstract
We demonstrate the absence of off-diagonal elements for the density matrix of a supersonic Na atomic beam, thus showing that there are no coherent wav e packets emerging from this source. We used a differentially detuned separ ated oscillatory field longitudinal interferometer to search for off-diagon al density matrix elements in the longitudinal energy/momentum basis. Our s tudy places a stringent lower bound on their possible size over an off-diag onal energy range from 0 to 100 kHz.