Measurement of Decoherence of Electron Waves and Visualization of the Quantum-Classical Transition

Controlled decoherence of free electrons due to Coulomb interaction with a truly macroscopic environment, the electron (and phonon) gas inside a semiconducting plate, is studied experimentally. The quantitative results are compared with different theoretical models. The experiment confirms the main features of the theory of decoherence and can be interpreted in terms of which-path information. In contrast to previous model experiments on decoherence, the obtained interferograms directly visualize the transition from quantum to classical.