Explanation and observability of diffraction in time
arXiv:1011.4278 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.83.043608
Abstract
Diffraction in time (DIT) is a fundamental phenomenon in quantum dynamics due to time-dependent obstacles and slits. It is formally analogous to diffraction of light, and is expected to play an increasing role to design coherent matter wave sources, as in the atom laser, to analyze time-of-flight information and emission from ultrafast pulsed excitations, and in applications of coherent matter waves in integrated atom-optical circuits. We demonstrate that DIT emerges robustly in quantum waves emitted by an exponentially decaying source and provide a simple explanation of the phenomenon, as an interference of two characteristic velocities. This allows for its controllability and optimization.
4 pages, 6 figures
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- Three-dimensional Quantum Slit Diffraction and Diffraction in Time
- Spin dynamics in tunneling decay of a metastable state
- Manipulating quantum wave packets via time-dependent absorption
- Comparison between two models of absorption of matter waves by a thin time-dependent barrier
- Dynamics of a quantum wave emitted by a decaying and evanescent point source
- Phase Space Evolution and Discontinuous Schrödinger Waves
- Phase-space representation of diffraction in time: Analytic results