Optical Stern–Gerlach effect via a single traveling-wave light

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a simplified model of the optical Stern–Gerlach effect based on coherent coupling between the clock transition of alkaline-earth single atoms and a traveling-wave light. It is demonstrated that spin–orbit coupling-induced chiral motion in atom deflection appears under strong atom–light interaction. The strong optical driving removes the perturbation from the Doppler effect and back-action effect to access the coherent system. In this process, the superposition of distant matter waves connected to the arbitrary distribution of the atom internal state could be predicted, which is important for the realization of atom interferometry and quantum-state operation. The influence of atom relaxation and atom–atom interactions is discussed. The basic conditions for the experimental design are given at the end of this work.