Young’s interference experiment with light scattered from two atoms

Author :M. G. Raizen, U. Eichmann, J. C. Bergquist, J. J. Bollinger, J. M. Gilligan, W. M. Itano, and D. J. Wineland
Publication :Physical Review Letters
Volume :70
Number :16
Pages :2359-2362
Year :1993

We report the first observation of interference effects in the light scattered from two trapped atoms. The visibility of the fringes can be explained in the framework of Bragg scattering by a harmonic crystal and simple ”which path” considerations of the scattered photons. If the light scattered by the atoms is detected in a polarization-sensitive way, then it is possible to selectively demonstrate either the particle nature or the wave nature of the scattered light.