Observation of ground-state quantum beats in atomic spontaneous emission.
We report ground-state quantum beats in spontaneous emission from a continuously driven atomic ensemble. Beats are visible only in an intensity autocorrelation and evidence spontaneously generated coherence in radiative decay. Our measurement realizes a quantum eraser where a first photon detection prepares a superposition and a second erases the "which path" information in the intermediate state.
Norris
D G
DG
Joint Quantum Institute, Department of Physics, University of Maryland and National Institute of Standards and Technology, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111, USA.
Orozco
L A
LA
Barberis-Blostein
P
P
Carmichael
H J
HJ