Using atomic interference to probe atom-surface interaction
Abstract
We show that atomic interference in the reflection from two suitably polarized evanescent waves is sensitive to retardation effects in the atom-surface interaction for specific experimental parameters. We study the limit of short and long atomic de Broglie wavelength. The former case is analyzed in the semiclassical approximation (Landau-Zener model). The latter represents a quantum regime and is analyzed by solving numerically the associated coupled Schroedinger equations. We consider a specific experimental scheme and show the results for rubidium (short wavelength) and the much lighter meta-stable helium atom (long wavelength). The merits of each case are then discussed.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0001015,
title = {Using atomic interference to probe atom-surface interaction},
author = {R. Marani and L. Cognet and V. Savalli and N. Westbrook and C. I. Westbrook and A. Aspect},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0001015},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
11 pages, including 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A, RevTeX source