Dissipative Stern-Gerlach recombination experiment

Journal Article · Sat Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2006 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.73.0· OSTI ID:20787096

Oliveira, Thiago R. de; Caldeira, A O ^[1]

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1. Departamento de Fisica da Materia Condensada, Instituto de Fisica 'Gleb Wataghin', Universidade Estadual de Campinas, CP 6165, CEP 13083-970, Campinas, SP (Brazil)

The possibility of obtaining the initial pure state in a usual Stern-Gerlach experiment through the recombination of the two emerging beams is investigated. We have extended the previous work of Englert, Schwinger, and Scully [Found Phys. 18, 1045 (1988)] including the fluctuations of the magnetic field generated by a properly chosen magnet. As a result we obtained an attenuation factor to the possible revival of coherence when the beams are perfectly recombined. When the source of the magnetic field is a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) the attenuation factor can be controlled by external circuits and the spin decoherence directly measured. For the proposed SQUID with dimensions in the scale of microns the attenuation factor has been shown unimportant when compared with the interaction time of the spin with the magnet.

• OSTI ID: 20787096
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 73, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.73.042502; (c) 2006 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
ATTENUATION
INTERFEROMETERS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
RECOMBINATION
SPIN
SQUID DEVICES
STERN-GERLACH EXPERIMENT