We provide an intuitive interpretation of the optical Stern-Gerlach effect (OSGE) in the dressed-state point of view. We also analyze the effect of atomic damping in an experiment on the OSGE. We show that the atomic damping also causes the wave packet splitting, in a non-mechanical fashion, as opposed to the coherent process that is mechanical.
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0108005,
title = {Decoherence-induced wave packet splitting},
author = {Young-Tak Chough and Hyunchul Nha and Sang Wook Kim and Sun-Hyun Youn and Kyungwon An},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0108005},
year = {2007}
}