Light transport in cold atoms and thermal decoherence

Creators: Labeyrie, Guillaume; Delande, Dominique; Kaiser, Robin; Miniatura, Christian

Others:: Institut Non Linéaire de Nice Sophia-Antipolis (INLN) ; Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS) ; COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (LKB (Jussieu)) ; Fédération de recherche du Département de physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure - ENS Paris (FRDPENS) ; École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

Description

By using the coherent backscattering interference effect, we investigate experimentally and theoretically how coherent transport of light inside a cold atomic vapour is affected by the residual motion of atomic scatterers. As the temperature of the atomic cloud increases, the interference contrast dramatically decreases emphazising the role of motion-induced decoherence for resonant scatterers even in the sub-Doppler regime of temperature. We derive analytical expressions for the corresponding coherence time.

Light transport in cold atoms and thermal decoherence

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