The field of atom interferometry is experiencing rapid progress. Atom interferometers have been used to determine topological phase shifts such as the Aharonov-Bohm or Aharonov-Casher effects. Both two beam and more recently multiple beam atom interferometers have been realized. We report on an investigation of the electric (or scalar) Aharonov-Bohm effect in a multiple beam Ramsey experiment. The topological phase shift leads to collapse and revival of the fringe pattern. In a first interaction region cesium atoms are optically pumped into a dark coherent superposition of the magnetic quantum numbers m/sub F/=-4, -2, 0, 2 and 4 of the 6S/sub 1/2/ (F=4) ground state. The coherent superposition is probed after a time T in a second interaction region. When the atoms are irradiated in between the Ramsey interactions by an additional linearly polarized light field 400 MHz blue detuned to the F=4/spl rarr/F'=4 transition of the cesium D1 line, the induced AC Stark shift increases quadratically with the magnetic quantum number. The laser field coupling to the induced atomic dipole moment causes-in the absence of any classical forces-an electric Aharonov-Bohm phase shift.
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机译:原子干涉仪领域正在迅速发展。原子干涉仪已用于确定拓扑相移,例如Aharonov-Bohm或Aharonov-Casher效应。已经实现了两束和最近的多束原子干涉仪。我们报告了在多束Ramsey实验中对电子(或标量)Aharonov-Bohm效应的研究。拓扑相移导致条纹图案崩溃和恢复。在第一个相互作用区域中,铯原子被光学泵浦到6S / sub 1/2 /的磁性量子数m / sub F / =-4,-2、0、2和4的暗相干叠加中(F = 4 )基态。在第二交互作用区域中的时间T之后,对相干叠加进行探测。当原子在Ramsey相互作用之间被附加的线性偏振光场(400 MHz蓝色)消退到铯D1线的F = 4 / spl rarr / F'= 4跃迁辐照时,感应的AC Stark位移随C的平方增加。磁量子数。在没有任何经典力的情况下,耦合到感应原子偶极矩的激光场会引起电子Aharonov-Bohm相移。
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