Strong-field spatial interference in a tailored electromagnetic bath.
Light scattered by a regular structure of atoms can exhibit interference signatures, similar to the classical double-slit. These first-order interferences, however, vanish for strong light intensities, restricting potential applications. Here, we show how to overcome these limitations to quantum interference in strong fields. First, we recover the first-order interference in strong fields via a tailored electromagnetic bath with a suitable frequency dependence. At strong driving, the optical properties for different spectral bands are distinct, thus extending the set of observables. We further show that for a two-photon detector as, e.g., in lithography, increasing the field intensity leads to twice the spatial resolution of the second-order interference pattern compared to the weak-field case.
Macovei
Mihai
M
Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
Evers
Jörg
J
Li
Gao-xiang
GX
Keitel
Christoph H
CH