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Physical Review A

Time selection in atomic Stern-Gerlach interferometry

B. J. Lawson-Daku, Rustam M. Asimov, Síle Nic Chormaic, O. Gorceix, Christian Miniatura, Jacques Robert, J. Baudon

Published Sep 1, 1995• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

As shown recently by Zawisky, Rauch, and Hasegawa in neutron interferometry [Phys. Rev. A 50, 5000 (1994)], the interference pattern obtained with a low-intensity particle beam is deeply modified when a selection is made of the time intervals between successive detected events. Experiments of the same type performed with a Stern-Gerlach interferometer using a metastable hydrogen atom beam are described. Results very similar to those of the neutron experiment are obtained, in particular a strong enhancement of the contrast when large time intervals are selected.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.52.2457

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As shown recently by Zawisky, Rauch, and Hasegawa in neutron interferometry [Phys. Rev. A 50, 5000 (1994)], the interference pattern obtained with a low-intensity particle beam is deeply modified when a selection is made of the time intervals between successive detected events. Experiments of the same type performed with a Stern-Gerlach interferometer using a metastable hydrogen atom beam are described. Results very similar to those of the neutron experiment are obtained, in particular a strong enhancement of the contrast when large time intervals are selected.
Delayed-choice experiments have been performed using an atomic Stern-Gerlach interferometer operating with a low-intensity beam of metastable hydrogen atoms. By use of a fast-commutable analyzer, it is possible to modify the operating mode of the interferometer while the atom has already entered the device. Various types of delayed-choice experiments have been carried out to check the standard interpretation of quantum-mechanics. Within the experimental accuracy, our results do not show any discrepancy between permanent and delayed-choice operating modes of the interferometer. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We have demonstrated in our experiments that important additional information can be won even from a stationary neutron beam by registering the detection time. Time selection was performed by registering the time of arrival of neutrons with respect to reference events. It was thus possible to measure the time-dependent neutron-neutron pair correlation function of a statistical beam. The sequence of time-correlated pairs is more strongly correlated than the Poissonian distribution of the initial events. Using this method it is possible to enhance the contrast and the phase resolution.
In atomic Stern-Gerlach (polarization) interferometry with time-dependent magnetic fields both the spatial and temporal parts of the atomic phase are generally affected. This leads to a total energy shift and to an inelastic momentum transfer. Some of the related effects are studied using a beam of metastable hydrogen atoms. In particular the scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect and its nondispersivity are considered, in addition to other phase shift effects occurring where the field gradient differs from zero.
A double atom interferometer based upon the Stern-Gerlach method in which the first interferometer acts as a ``nonordinary'' source for the second one is described. Experiments have been carried out with a wide-velocity-distribution beam of metastable hydrogen atoms, using two different operating modes: (i) continuous mode in which the magnitude of the magnetic field in the first interferometer is fixed whereas that of the second one is scanned; (ii) time-of-flight mode in which both magnetic fields are fixed. In the former case lateral interference patterns appear, in the latter one an overmodulation of the time-of-flight distribution is observed. It is predicted that this overmodulation becomes more and more marked as the number of interferometers is increased, leading to a limiting behavior characteristic of a quantum Zeno effect.