Two-particle Kapitza-Dirac diffraction

We extend the study of Kapitza-Dirac diffraction to the case of two-particle systems. Due to the exchange effects the shape and visibility of the two-particle detection patterns show important differences for identical and distinguishable particles. We also identify a novel quantum statistics effect present in momentum space for some values of the initial particle momenta, which is associated with different numbers of photon absorptions compatible with the final momenta.Comment: Minor changes with the published versio

The Schmidt modes of biphoton qutrits: Poincare-sphere representation

For a general-form polarization biphoton qutrit, physically corresponding to a pair of arbitrarily polarized photons in a single frequency and wavevector mode, we explicitly find polarization Schmidt modes. A simple method is suggested for factorizing the state vector and the explicit expressions for the factorizing photon creation operators are found. The degrees of entanglement and polarization of a qutrit are shown to depend directly on the commutation features of the factorizing operators. Clear graphic representations for the Stokes vectors of the qutrit state as a whole, its Schmidt modes, and factorizing single-photon creation operators are given, based on the Poincar\'e sphere. An experimental scheme is proposed for measuring the parameters of the Schmidt decomposition as well as for demonstrating the operational meaning of qutrit entanglement.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure

Two-color interference stabilization of atoms

The effect of interference stabilization is shown to exist in a system of two atomic levels coupled by a strong two-color laser field, the two frequencies of which are close to a two-photon Raman-type resonance between the chosen levels, with open channels of one-photon ionization from both of them. We suggest an experiment, in which a rather significant (up to 90%) suppression of ionization can take place and which demonstrates explicitly the interference origin of stabilization. Specific calculations are made for H and He atoms and optimal parameters of a two-color field are found. The physics of the effect and its relation with such well-known phenomena as LICS and population trapping in a three-level system are discussed.Comment: the paper includes 1 TeX file and 16 picture