Interference of photons from independent hot atoms

Abstract

The coherence of light from independent ensembles of elementary atomic emitters plays a paramount role in diverse areas of modern optics. We demonstrate the interference of photons scattered from independent ensembles of warm atoms in atomic vapor. It relies on the feasibility of the preservation of coherence of light scattered elastically in the forward and backward directions from Doppler-broadened atomic ensembles, such that photons with chaotic photon statistics from two opposite atomic velocity groups contribute to the same detection mode. While the random phase fluctuations of the scattered light caused by a large thermal motion prevent direct observability of the interference in the detected photon rate, the stable frequency difference between photons collected from scattering off counter-propagating laser beams provides strong periodic modulation of the photon coincidence rate with the period given by the detuning of the excitation laser from the atomic resonance. The presented interferometry represents a sensitive and robust methodology for Doppler-free optical atomic and molecular spectroscopy based on photon correlation measurements on scattered light.