Decoherence by spontaneous emission in atomic-momentum transfer experiments

Abstract
The influence of spontaneous emission on the dynamical localization in atomic momentum transfer observed in recent experiments is investigated. Our numerical and analytical results indicate that contrary to previous expectation quantum diffusion due to decoherence by spontaneous emission is non-negligible in the experimental regime and may actually be visible in the measured data. Modifications of the experiments to strengthen this point are proposed. © 1996 The American Physical Society.