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  • Open Access

Interference of photons from independent hot atoms

Jaromír Mika1, Stuti Joshi1, Lukáš Lachman1, Robin Kaiser2, and Lukáš Slodička1,*

  • *Contact author: slodicka@optics.upol.cz
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013061 – Published 20 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/r5n8-pt1g

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 counterpropagating 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.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013061– Published 20 January, 2026
  • Received 3 October 2024
  • Accepted 12 December 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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