Two-Particle Interference with Double Twin-Atom Beams

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel source of correlated atom pairs in Bell states with external degrees of freedom, demonstrating strong number squeezing and genuine two-particle interference, advancing quantum atom optics research.

Contribution

It introduces a new method to generate and characterize Bell states of atoms with external degrees of freedom, including observing strong number squeezing and two-particle interference.

Findings

Strong number squeezing up to -10 dB observed

Genuine two-particle interference demonstrated

Correlated atom pairs form Bell states involving external degrees of freedom

Abstract

We demonstrate a source for correlated pairs of atoms characterized by two opposite momenta and two spatial modes forming a Bell state only involving external degrees of freedom. We characterize the state of the emitted atom beams by observing strong number squeezing up to -10 dB in the correlated two-particle modes of emission. We furthermore demonstrate genuine two-particle interference in the normalized second-order correlation function $g^{(2)}$ relative to the emitted atoms.