The position of an atom passing through a standard light wave is localized by making a quadrature phase measurement on the light field. This localization can be thought of as the creation of a virtual slit (or slits) for the atom by the field measurement. Diffraction and interference behavior may be observed in the far field.

• Received 9 October 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.68.472