Theory of decoherence in a matter wave Talbot-Lau interferometer

Author(s)
Klaus Hornberger, John, E Sipe, Markus Arndt
Abstract

The theory of decoherence in a matter wave Talbot-Lau interferometer was analyzed. It was observed that the loss of interference contrast could be calculated using a Wigner description of the stationary beam. It was also observed that the formulation includes the decohering coupling to the environment and the coherent interaction with the grating walls. The realistic microscopic descriptions of the experimentally relevant interactions were developed and showed that the treatment was equivalent to solving the corresponding master equation in paraxial approximation.

Organisation(s)
External organisation(s)
University of Toronto
Journal
Physical Review A
Volume
70
No. of pages
18
ISSN
1050-2947
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.70.053608
Publication date
2004
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103026 Quantum optics
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/b2123837-3ea6-407c-8379-b41fbdbf6311