Coherent backscattering of inelastic photons from atoms and their mirror images

Abstract

Coherent backscattering is a coherence effect in the propagation of waves through disordered media involving two or more scattering events. Here, we report on the observation of coherent backscattering from individual atoms and their mirror images. This system displays two important advantages: First, the effect can be observed at low optical densities, which allows to work in very dilute clouds or far from resonance. Second, due to the fact that the radiation of an atom interferes constructively with that of its own image, the phenomenon is much more robust to dephasing induced by strong saturation. In particular, the contribution of inelastically scattered photons to the interference process is demonstrated.

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References in corpus (3)

• Probing the quantum vacuum with an artificial atom in front of a mirror
• Coherent backscattering of light from ultracold and optically dense atomic ensembles
• Coherent inelastic backscattering of laser light from three isotropic atoms

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Long-range interactions and symmetry-breaking in quantum gases through optical feedback
• Robust coherent transport of light in multi-level hot atomic vapors
• Sensitivity of electromagnetically induced transparency to light-mediated interactions
• Mirror-assisted coherent backscattering from the Mollow sidebands
• Mirror-assisted backscattering interferometry to measure the first-order correlation function of the light emitted by quantum scatterers
• Breaking of reciprocity and the Pancharatnam-Berry phase for light scattered by a disordered cold atom cloud
• Weak localization of light in hot atomic vapors