Laser-induced "two-atom" coherence

Our analysis shows that if an electromagnetic field excites a coherent superposition of states of two different types of atoms, then the results of a collision of those two atoms can be quite different from the usual dephasing that a coherently excited atom suffers upon collision with another atom. We present the concept of "two-atom" coherence as one feature of this interaction where the field of a given wavelength may interact with the system coherently over a wide range of internuclear distances.