Tunable Einstein-Bohr recoiling-slit gedankenexperiment at the quantum limit

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Yu-Chen, Cheng, Hao-Wen, Zengxu, Zhao-Qiu, Wu, Zhan, Lin, Rui, Duan, Yu-Cheng, Rui, Jun, Chen, Ming-Cheng, Lu, Chao-Yang, Pan, Jian-Wei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Zhang, Yu-Chen
Cheng, Hao-Wen
Zengxu, Zhao-Qiu
Wu, Zhan
Lin, Rui
Duan, Yu-Cheng
Rui, Jun
Chen, Ming-Cheng
Lu, Chao-Yang
Pan, Jian-Wei
author_facet Zhang, Yu-Chen
Cheng, Hao-Wen
Zengxu, Zhao-Qiu
Wu, Zhan
Lin, Rui
Duan, Yu-Cheng
Rui, Jun
Chen, Ming-Cheng
Lu, Chao-Yang
Pan, Jian-Wei
contents In 1927, during the fifth Solvay Conference, Einstein and Bohr described a double-slit interferometer with a "movable slit" that can detect the momentum recoil of one photon. Here, we report a faithful realization of the Einstein-Bohr interferometer using a single atom in an optical tweezer, cooled to the motional ground state in three dimensions. The single atom has an intrinsic momentum uncertainty comparable to a single photon, which serves as a movable slit obeying the minimum Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The atom's momentum wavefunction is dynamically tunable by the tweezer laser power, which enables observation of an interferometric visibility reduction at a shallower trap, demonstrating the quantum nature of this interferometer. We further identify classical noise due to atom heating and precession, illustrating a quantum-to-classical transition.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_10664
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tunable Einstein-Bohr recoiling-slit gedankenexperiment at the quantum limit
Zhang, Yu-Chen
Cheng, Hao-Wen
Zengxu, Zhao-Qiu
Wu, Zhan
Lin, Rui
Duan, Yu-Cheng
Rui, Jun
Chen, Ming-Cheng
Lu, Chao-Yang
Pan, Jian-Wei
Quantum Physics
Atomic Physics
Optics
Popular Physics
In 1927, during the fifth Solvay Conference, Einstein and Bohr described a double-slit interferometer with a "movable slit" that can detect the momentum recoil of one photon. Here, we report a faithful realization of the Einstein-Bohr interferometer using a single atom in an optical tweezer, cooled to the motional ground state in three dimensions. The single atom has an intrinsic momentum uncertainty comparable to a single photon, which serves as a movable slit obeying the minimum Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The atom's momentum wavefunction is dynamically tunable by the tweezer laser power, which enables observation of an interferometric visibility reduction at a shallower trap, demonstrating the quantum nature of this interferometer. We further identify classical noise due to atom heating and precession, illustrating a quantum-to-classical transition.
title Tunable Einstein-Bohr recoiling-slit gedankenexperiment at the quantum limit
topic Quantum Physics
Atomic Physics
Optics
Popular Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.10664