Search for Off-Diagonal Density Matrix Elements for Atoms in a Supersonic Beam
- 8 March 1999
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 82 (10) , 2018-2021
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.82.2018
Abstract
We demonstrate the absence of off-diagonal elements for the density matrix of a supersonic Na atomic beam, thus showing that there are no coherent wave packets emerging from this source. We used a differentially detuned separated oscillatory field longitudinal interferometer to search for off-diagonal density matrix elements in the longitudinal energy/momentum basis. Our study places a stringent lower bound on their possible size over an off-diagonal energy range from 0 to 100 kHz.Keywords
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