Visibility of Young's Interference Fringes: Scattered Light from Small Ion Crystals

Wolf S, Wechs J, von Zanthier J, Schmidt-Kaler F (2016)


Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2016

Journal

Publisher: American Physical Society

Book Volume: 116

Article Number: 183002

Journal Issue: 18

URI: http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.183002

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.183002

Abstract

We observe interference in the light scattered from trapped Ca-40(+) ion crystals. By varying the intensity of the excitation laser, we study the influence of elastic and inelastic scattering on the visibility of the fringe pattern and discriminate its effect from that of the ion temperature and wave-packet localization. In this way we determine the complex degree of coherence and the mutual coherence of light fields produced by individual atoms. We obtain interference fringes from crystals consisting of two, three, and four ions in a harmonic trap. Control of the trapping potential allows for the adjustment of the interatomic distances and thus the formation of linear arrays of atoms serving as a regular grating of microscopic scatterers.

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APA:

Wolf, S., Wechs, J., von Zanthier, J., & Schmidt-Kaler, F. (2016). Visibility of Young's Interference Fringes: Scattered Light from Small Ion Crystals. Physical Review Letters, 116(18). https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.183002

MLA:

Wolf, Sebastian, et al. "Visibility of Young's Interference Fringes: Scattered Light from Small Ion Crystals." Physical Review Letters 116.18 (2016).

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