Interference of cavity light by a single atom acting as a double slit

Zhou, Yijia; Li, Xinwei; Li, Weibin; Zhang, Hao

Abstract

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.

Citation

Zhou, Y., Li, X., Li, W., & Zhang, H. (2023). Interference of cavity light by a single atom acting as a double slit. Physical Review A, 108(6), Article 063711. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.108.063711

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 4, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Dec 20, 2023
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Dec 25, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 2, 2024
• Journal: Physical Review A
• Print ISSN: 2469-9926
• Electronic ISSN: 2469-9934
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 108
• Issue: 6
• Article Number: 063711
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.108.063711
• Keywords: Atoms, ions, & molecules in cavities; Cavity quantum electrodynamics; Quantum description of light-matter interaction; Quantum optics
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/28716902
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.108.063711