Wave Packet in Three Dimensions

S. Brandt, Hans Dieter Dahmen

S. Brandt, Hans Dieter Dahmen

S. A. Kulin, Bruno Saubaméa, E. Peik +4 more

We use laser induced adiabatic passage to coherently manipulate the atomic wave packets resulting from subrecoil laser cooling in one, two, and three dimensions by velocity selective coherent population trapping. Using metastable helium atoms, we demonstrate adiabatic transfer into a single wave packet or into two coherent wave packets, while retaining the subrecoil momentum dispersion of the initial wave packets. The efficiency of the transfer is nearly perfect in one and two dimensions, and of the order of 75% in three dimensions. To a large extent, the direction of the momentum and the internal state of the atoms described by each of the final wave packets can be chosen at will.

German Kälbermann

A simple formula for the scattering of wave packets from a square well at long times is derived. The expression shows that the phenomenon of wave packet diffraction in space and time exists in three dimensions also. An experiment for the verification of the phenomenon is described and simulated numerically.

Phil Attard

E. A. Shapiro

A graphic method for describing the localization of quantum wave packets in several dimensions is proposed. The method employs classical action-angle coordinates. Different kind of wave packets arising in the two-and three-dimensional Coulomb problems are described from a unified point of view. Specifically, a more precise interpretation of the structure of “angular” Rydberg wave packets is given. Certain additional features of the proposed approach are discussed.