Spin Self-Rephasing and Very Long Coherence Times in a Trapped Atomic Ensemble

Journal Article · Fri Jul 09 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.105.020401· OSTI ID:21410891

Deutsch, C; Reinhard, F; Schneider, T; Laloee, F; Reichel, J ^[1]; Ramirez-Martinez, F; Lacroute, C; Rosenbusch, P ^[2]; Fuchs, J N; Piechon, F ^[3]

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1. Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, ENS, UPMC, CNRS, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris (France)
2. LNE-SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, UPMC, CNRS, 61 av de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris (France)
3. Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS UMR 8502, Univ. Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay (France)

We perform Ramsey spectroscopy on the ground state of ultracold {sup 87}Rb atoms magnetically trapped on a chip in the Knudsen regime. Field inhomogeneities over the sample should limit the 1/e contrast decay time to about 3 s, while decay times of 58{+-}12 s are actually observed. We explain this surprising result by a spin self-rephasing mechanism induced by the identical spin rotation effect originating from particle indistinguishability. We propose a theory of this synchronization mechanism and obtain good agreement with the experimental observations. The effect is general and may appear in other physical systems.

• OSTI ID: 21410891
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.020401; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
GROUND STATES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PARTICLE DECAY
PARTICLE DISCRIMINATION
ROTATION
RUBIDIUM 87
SPECTROSCOPY
SPIN
SYNCHRONIZATION
TRAPPING
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DECAY
ENERGY LEVELS
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
MOTION
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
PARTICLE IDENTIFICATION
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
RADIOISOTOPES
RUBIDIUM ISOTOPES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES