Matter-wave self-imaging by atomic center-of-mass motion induced interference

Published

December 18, 2008

Author(s)

Ke Li, Lu Deng, Edward W. Hagley, M.S. Zhan, Marvin G. Payne

Abstract

We demonstrate matter-wave self-imaging in a stationary light field in the non-Raman-Nath limit. We show that in a non-instantaneous pulsed standing wave grating significant contributions due to the non-negligible atomic center of mass motion and instantaneous Doppler shift can drastically change the condensate momentum distribution, resulting in periodical collapses and recurrences of condensate diffraction probability as a function of the grating pulsing time. The observed matter-wave self-imaging is fundamentally different from the temperal, matter-wave Talbot effect. It is characterized by an atomic population amplitude interference, in the presence of the light field, that simultaneously minimizes all higher (n > 1) diffraction orders and maximizes the zero-th diffraction component.

Citation

Physical Review Letters

Volume

101

Issue

25

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.250401

Local Download

Keywords

gain, matter wave, Raman-Nath regime diffraction, superradiance effect

Citation

Li, K. , Deng, L. , Hagley, E. , Zhan, M. and Payne, M. (2008), Matter-wave self-imaging by atomic center-of-mass motion induced interference, Physical Review Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.250401, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=842522 (Accessed October 10, 2025)