Temporal, Matter-Wave Dispersion Talbot Effect

Published

December 1, 1999

Author(s)

Lu Deng, Edward W. Hagley, J Denschlag, J E. Simsarian, M Edwards, Charles W. Clark, Kristian Helmerson, S L. Rolston, William D. Phillips

Abstract

We analyze and experimentally demonstrate a new (temporal) Talbot effect, where a pulsed phase grating is applied to a cloud of cold atoms (Bose-Einstein condensate). In contrast to the usual (spatial) Talbot effect, our atoms gain kinetic energy when diffracted by the pulsed grating. The energy gain and the matter-wave-dispersion relation result in an exact (no paraxial approximation) Talbot effect where the initial wave front is reconstructed at multiples of a “Talbot time” TT. We demonstrate the Talbot effect by applying a second pulsed phase grating after a variable delay. When this second grating is applied at even (odd) multiples of TT2, it doubles (cancels) the effect of the first pulsed grating.

Citation

Physical Review Letters

Volume

83

Issue

No. 26

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

matter wave dispersion, Talbot effect

Citation

Deng, L. , Hagley, E. , Denschlag, J. , Simsarian, J. , Edwards, M. , Clark, C. , Helmerson, K. , Rolston, S. and Phillips, W. (1999), Temporal, Matter-Wave Dispersion Talbot Effect, Physical Review Letters (Accessed April 25, 2024)