Excitation of an atomic electron to a coherent superposition of macroscopically distinct states

Michael W. Noel and C. R. Stroud, Jr.

Phys. Rev. Lett 77 1913 (1996).

An atomic electron is prepared in a state closely analogous to Schrödinger's coherent superposition of "live cat" and "dead cat." The electronic state is a coherent superposition of two spatially localized wave packets separated by approximately 0.4 µm at the opposite extremes of a Kepler orbit. State-selective ionization is used to verify that only every other atomic level is populated in the "cat state," and a Ramsey fringe measurement is used to verify the coherence of the superposition.

Click here to download the .pdf version of the paper noel961.pdf (103 KB)

Previous Abstract

Publications List

Next Abstract

Web page maintained by
Hideomi Nihira ( nihira@optics.rochester.edu ).
Last modified 13 September 2006