Experimental study of sub-Poissonian statistics in the transfer of momentum from light to atoms
- 24 September 1990
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 65 (13) , 1555-1558
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.65.1555
Abstract
We have studied the statistics of the absorption of photons by atoms by measuring the momentum distribution of an atomic beam that is deflected by a laser beam. We observe the transition from a Poissonian to a sub-Poissonian distribution, as we vary the detuning of the laser. The largest observed fractional deviation of the variance from Poissonian statistics is Q=-0.51±0.05, in agreement with theoretical predictions for our experimental conditions.Keywords
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