Coherent scattering from a free gas

Citation:

Sanders, S.N., Mintert, F. & Heller, E.J. Coherent scattering from a free gas. Physical Review A 79, 023610 (2009).

Abstract:

We investigate decoherence in atom interferometry due to scattering from a background gas and show that the supposition that residual coherence is due to near-forward scattering is incorrect. In fact, the coherent part is completely unscattered, although it is phase shifted. This recoil-free process leaves both the atom and the gas in an unchanged state, but allows for the acquisition of a phase shift. This is essential to understanding decoherence in a separated-arm atom interferometer, where a gas of atoms forms a refractive medium for a matter wave. Our work elucidates the actual microscopic, many-body, quantum-mechanical scattering mechanism that gives rise to prior phenomenological results for the phase shift and decoherence.

Publisher's Version

Last updated on 10/07/2016