Structured Quantum Projectiles

Abstract

Matter wave interferometry is becoming an increasingly important technique in quantum metrology. However, unlike its photonic counterpart, this technique relies on the interference of particles possessing a non-zero rest mass and an electric charge. Matter waves, thus, can experience alterations in their wave-like features while propagating through uniform fields to which a linear potential can be attributed. Here, we derive analytical expressions for structured matter waves subjected to linear potentials. We show that the center of mass of corresponding to these wavefunctions follows the classical parabolic trajectory attributed to this potential and also provide the additional phase profile acquired by the wave upon propagation. Furthermore, we find that these features are identical for any structured wave, thus significantly simplifying the action of quantum effects pertaining to this potential in applications relying on structured quantum waves.

arXiv comment11 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Atom Interferometers
• Electromagnetic Force and Momentum
• Electromagnetic Angular Momentum
• Self accelerating electron Airy beams
• Testing the limits of quantum mechanical superpositions
• Twin matter waves for interferometry beyond the classical limit
• Theory and applications of free-electron vortex states
• Semiclassical Dynamics of Electron Wave Packet States with Phase Vortices
• Colloquium: Quantum interference of clusters and molecules
• Gravitation and quantum interference experiments with neutrons
• Quantum limits to mass sensing in a gravitational field

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Trajectory of a massive localised wave function in a curved spacetime geometry