Measuring finite-range phase coherence in an optical lattice using Talbot interferometry.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28580941.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms15601 and PMC identifier 5465360.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
One of the important goals of present research is to control and manipulate coherence in a broad variety of systems, such as semiconductor spintronics, biological photosynthetic systems, superconducting qubits and complex atomic networks. Over the past decades, interferometry of atoms and molecules has proven to be a powerful tool to explore coherence. Here we demonstrate a near-field interferometer based on the Talbot effect, which allows us to measure finite-range phase coherence of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We apply this interferometer to study the build-up of phase coherence after a quantum quench of a Bose-Einstein condensate residing in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Our technique of measuring finite-range phase coherence is generic, easy to adopt and can be applied in practically all lattice experiments without further modifications.