Two-Body Kapitza-Dirac Scattering of One-Dimensional Ultracold Atoms

Abstract

Kapitza-Dirac scattering, the diffraction of matter waves from a standing light field, is widely utilized in ultracold gases, but its behavior in the strongly interacting regime is an open question. Here we develop a numerically-exact two-body description of Kapitza-Dirac scattering for two contact-interacting atoms in a one-dimensional harmonic trap subjected to a pulsed optical lattice, enabling us to obtain the numerically exact dynamics. We map how interaction strength, lattice depth, lattice wavenumber, and pulse duration reshape the diffraction pattern, leading to an interaction-dependent population redistribution in real and momentum-space. By comparing the exact dynamics to an impulsive sudden-approximation description, we delineate the parameter regimes where it remains accurate and those, notably at strong attraction and small lattice wavenumber, where it fails. Our results provide a controlled few-body benchmark for interacting Kapitza-Dirac scattering and quantitative guidance for Kapitza-Dirac-based probes of ultracold atomic systems.

arXiv comment18 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (36)

• Many-Body Physics with Ultracold Gases
• Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Gases
• Atom Interferometers
• Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules
• Bragg spectroscopy of a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Dynamics of Loschmidt echoes and fidelity decay
• Deterministic Preparation of a Tunable Few-Fermion System
• Fermionization of two distinguishable fermions
• Atom-wave diffraction between the Raman-Nath and the Bragg regime: Effective Rabi frequency, losses, and phase shifts
• Spin-resolved single-atom imaging of ${}^6$Li in free space
• Analytical solutions for the dynamics of two trapped interacting ultracold atoms
• Experimental Characterization of Two-Particle Entanglement through Position and Momentum Correlations
• Atom-optics simulator of lattice transport phenomena
• An atom optics approach to studying lattice transport phenomena
• Two atoms in an anisotropic harmonic trap
• Theory of coherent Bragg spectroscopy of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate
• Observing the emergence of a quantum phase transition -- shell by shell
• Matter wave Fourier optics with a strongly interacting two-dimensional Fermi gas
• Analysis of Kapitza-Dirac diffraction patterns beyond the Raman-Nath regime
• The Kapitza - Dirac effect
• Charge and spin dynamics driven by ultrashort extreme broadband pulses: a theory perspective
• Fast single atom imaging for optical lattice arrays
• High-Contrast Interference of Ultracold Fermions
• Probing an Ultracold-Atom Crystal with Matter Waves
• Quantum Gas Microscopy of Fermions in the Continuum
• Analytical treatment of the interaction quench dynamics of two bosons in a two-dimensional harmonic trap
• Quench Dynamics of Two One-Dimensional Harmonically Trapped Bosons Bridging Attraction and Repulsion
• Universal Atom Interferometer Simulator -- Elastic Scattering Processes
• Ultracold Feshbach molecules in an orbital optical lattice
• Measurement of the tune-out wavelength for ${}^{133}$Cs at $880$ nm
• Electron stripping and re-attachment at atomic centers using attosecond half-cycle pulses
• Magnifying the Wave Function of Interacting Fermionic Atoms
• Nonadiabatic Diffraction of Matter Waves
• Diffraction of strongly interacting molecular Bose-Einstein condensate from standing wave light pulses
• A Multi-Purpose Platform for Analog Quantum Simulation
• Diffraction of entangled particles by light gratings