Interferometric phase detection at x-ray energies via Fano resonance control

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates phase-sensitive measurements of nuclear quantum states at hard x-ray energies using Fano resonance control, enabling potential advancements in x-ray quantum tomography and high-precision metrology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for interferometric phase detection of nuclear states at x-ray energies, advancing quantum state characterization techniques.

Findings

Successfully reconstructed the phase of a nuclear superposition state.

Demonstrated control of Fano resonance for phase-sensitive x-ray measurements.

Paved the way for x-ray quantum state tomography and enhanced structural analysis.

Abstract

Modern x-ray light sources promise access to structure and dynamics of matter in largely unexplored spectral regions. However, the desired information is encoded in the light intensity and phase, whereas detectors register only the intensity. This phase problem is ubiquitous in crystallography and imaging, and impedes the exploration of quantum effects at x-ray energies. Here, we demonstrate phase-sensitive measurements characterizing the quantum state of a nuclear two-level system at hard x-ray energies. The nuclei are initially prepared in a superposition state. Subsequently, the relative phase of this superposition is interferometrically reconstructed from the emitted x-rays. Our results form a first step towards x-ray quantum state tomography, and provide new avenues for structure determination and precision metrology via x-ray Fano interference.