A driven two-component BEC: Chaos in a Macroscopic Quantum System

This work discusses the experimental realization of a mixed regular-chaotic phase space in a macroscopic quantum system. The effective Planck's constant of the system can be varied in a large range. Therefore, the semi-classical limit of the system can be studied, where the initial size of the many particle wave packet is much smaller than typical structures of the phase space. Thus, different structures of the phase space can be resolved. In a weakly driven system, the Poincaré-Birkhoff scenario is investigated by the dispersion of the wave packet at a stable or unstable fixed point. In a strongly driven system, different dynamics of a wave packet is found, dependent on preparation in a regular island or the chaotic sea. The time evolution can be described by a classical model, which is in good agreement with experiment as well as the mean field model for the considered observables. In an independent experiment using an atomic beam setup the generation of motional coherence of a single atom by spontaneous emission of a single photon has been demonstrated

Single spontaneous photon as a coherent beamsplitter for an atomic matterwave

In spontaneous emission an atom in an excited state undergoes a transition to the ground state and emits a single photon. Associated with the emission is a change of the atomic momentum due to photon recoil. Photon emission can be modified close to surfaces and in cavities. For an ion, localized in front of a mirror, coherence of the emitted resonance fluorescence has been reported. In free space experiments demonstrated that spontaneous emission destroys motional coherence. Here we report on motional coherence created by a single spontaneous emission event close to a mirror surface. The coherence in the free atomic motion is verified by atom interferometry. The photon can be regarded as a beamsplitter for an atomic matterwave and consequently our experiment extends the original recoiling slit Gedanken experiment by Einstein to the case where the slit is in a robust coherent superposition of the two recoils associated with the two paths of the quanta.Comment: main text: 5 pages, 4 figure; supplementary information: 8 pages, 1 figur