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Physical Review A

Control of interference and diffraction of a three-level atom in a double-slit scheme with cavity fields

Mario Miranda, Miguel Orszag

Published Sep 28, 2020• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A double-cavity with a quantum mechanical and a classical field is placed immediately behind a double-slit in order to analyze the wave-particle duality. Both fields have common nodes and antinodes through which a three-level atom passes after crossing the double-slit. The atom-field interaction is maximum when the atom crosses a common antinode and path information can be recorded on the phase of the quantum field. On the other hand, if the atom crosses a common node, the interaction is null and no path information is stored. A quadrature measurement on the quantum field can reveal the path followed by the atom, depending on its initial amplitude $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ and the classical amplitude $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$. In this report we show that the classical radiation acts like a focusing element of the interference and diffraction patterns and how it alters the visibility and distinguishabilily. Furthermore, in our double-slit scheme the two possible paths are correlated with the internal atomic states, which allows us to study the relationship between concurrence and wave-particle duality considering different cases.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.102.033723

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A double-cavity with a quantum mechanical and a classical field is placed immediately behind a double-slit in order to analyze the wave-particle duality. Both fields have common nodes and antinodes through which a three-level atom passes after crossing the double-slit. The atom-field interaction is maximum when the atom crosses a common antinode and path information can be recorded on the phase of the quantum field. On the other hand, if the atom crosses a common node, the interaction is null and no path information is stored. A quadrature measurement on the quantum field can reveal the path followed by the atom, depending on its initial amplitude \ensuremathα\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremathα and the classical amplitude \ensuremathε\ensuremath{\varepsilon}\ensuremathε. In this report we show that the classical radiation acts like a focusing element of the interference and diffraction patterns and how it alters the visibility and distinguishabilily. Furthermore, in our double-slit scheme the two possible paths are correlated with the internal atomic states, which allows us to study the relationship between concurrence and wave-particle duality considering different cases.
A double cavity with a quantum mechanical and a classical field is located immediately behind of a double-slit in order to analyse the wave-particle duality. Both fields have common nodes and antinodes through which a three-level atom passes after crossing the double-slit. The atom-field interaction is maximum when the atom crosses a common antinode and path-information can be recorded on the phase of the quantum field. On other hand, if the atom crosses a common node, the interaction is null and no path-information is stored. A quadrature measurement on the quantum field can reveal the path followed by the atom, depending on its initial amplitude ααα and the classical amplitude ε\varepsilonε. In this report we show that the classical radiation acts like a focusing element of the interference and diffraction patterns and how it alters the visibility and distinguishabilily. Furthermore, in our double-slit scheme the two possible paths are correlated with the internal atomic states, which allows us to study the relationship between concurrence and wave-particle duality considering different cases.
A double-slit scheme placed immediately before a standing wave allows one to establish two possible paths for the passage of an atom. Each path matches with a node or antinode of the wave. The atom–field interaction is maximum (null) when the atom crosses an antinode (node), causing a maximum (null) phase shift in the field. Therefore, after the interaction, a proper quadrature measurement on the field can reveal the value of its final phase, and which-path information can be obtained. For a coherent state, the which-path information can be controlled by the amplitude of the field, and partial interference can be observed as it decreases. In this paper, we consider different states of the quantum field (squeezed coherent, cat, and thermal states), and we establish correlations between the internal atomic states and the paths of the double-slit scheme. This allows us to study the relationship among visibility, distinguishability, and concurrence, having in both the field and the atom different controlling parameters of the wave-particle duality.
Complementarity lies at the heart of conceptual foundation of orthodox quantum mechanics. The wave-particle duality makes it impossible to tell which slit each particle passes through and still observe an interference pattern in a Young's double-slit experiment. In this paper, this duality is appraised under the standard formulation of quantum mechanics for atom interferometers. It is found that the internal freedoms like electronic states of an atom can be used to detect the which-path information of each atom while uphold the interference pattern of atoms when the center-of-mass motion of atoms is detected.
This work proposes a novel variation of the double-slit experiment in which two different types of quantum particles — for example, electrons and photons — pass simultaneously through a shared double-slit apparatus. The primary objective is to test the hypothesis that the act of measurement may not only collapse the wave function of the observed particle, but could also influence the interference pattern of an unmeasured, co-propagating particle of a different type. In the proposed configuration, photons and electrons are emitted in synchrony and directed through the same set of slits. Immediately after the slits, a path-detecting measurement apparatus is applied only to one type of particle (e.g., photons), while the interference pattern of the other type (e.g., electrons) is recorded on a distant screen. The experiment is designed to explore whether the destruction of coherence through measurement is strictly local, or whether it can propagate to other particles through a shared medium, entangled fields, or an unknown interaction. If the unmeasured particle continues to display interference, this would support the locality of measurement effects. Conversely, if interference vanishes for both, it could indicate a more global or field-level decoherence process. This investigation aims to contribute new insights into the nature of quantum measurement, the role of observation, and the interdependence of coherent systems involving distinct particle species.
Young's double-slit interference experiment is central to quantum mechanics. While it has been demonstrated that an array of atoms can produce interference in light, it is a fundamental question to ask whether a single atom can act as a double slit when prepared in a superposition of two separate positions. Cohen-Tannoudji et al. [Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Laser Spectroscopy, edited by M. Ducloy, E. Giacobino, and G. Camy (World Scientific, Singapore, 1992), pp. 3--14] showed that the cross section of the light scattered by a single atom is independent of the spatial separation. In this work, however, we show that when a single atom tunneling in a double well is coupled to an optical ring cavity, the interference phenomena arise if the tunneling rate is comparable to the cavity linewidth. Being driven by an external laser in the dispersive regime, the field emitted by the atom into the cavity exhibits an interference pattern when varying the double-well spacing. Super-Poissonian bunched light can also be generated near the destructive interference. Furthermore, we show that the atomic flux of the coherent tunneling motion generates directional cavity emission, which oscillates for many cycles before the decoherence of the atomic motion and the decay of the cavity photons. Our work opens ways to manipulate photons with controllable external states of atoms for quantum information applications and use cavity light as nondestructive measurements for many-body states of atomic systems.