Spectroscopic measurement of an atomic wave function

Journal Article · Sat Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2003 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.67.023805· OSTI ID:20633762

Kapale, Kishore T ^[1]; Qamar, Shahid ^[1]; Zubairy, M Suhail ^[1]

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1. Institute for Quantum Studies, and Department of Physics, Texas A and M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4242 (United States)

We present a simple spectroscopic method based on Autler-Townes spectroscopy to determine the center-of-mass atomic wave function. The detection of spontaneously emitted photons from a three-level atom, in which two upper levels are driven by a classical standing light, yields information about the position and momentum distribution of the atom [A. M. Herkommer, W. P. Schleich, and M. S. Zubairy, J. Mod. Opt. 44, 2507 (1997)]. In this paper, we show that both the amplitude and phase information of the center-of-mass atomic wave function can be obtained from these distributions after a series of conditional measurements on the atom and the emitted photon.

• OSTI ID: 20633762
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 67, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.67.023805; (c) 2003 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
AMPLITUDES
ATOMS
CENTER-OF-MASS SYSTEM
DISTRIBUTION
EMISSION SPECTRA
OPTICS
PHOTON EMISSION
PHOTONS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
SPECTROSCOPY
STARK EFFECT
WAVE FUNCTIONS