Reflection of Waves from a Ridged Surface and the Zeno Effect

Dmitrii Kouznetsov, H. Oberst

The scattering of waves at a ridged surface is interpreted as the Zeno effect. This interpretation leads to a simple estimate for the coefficient of reflection. Our estimate shows good agreement with experimental data.

Alexander A. Kolokolov

Dmitrii Kouznetsov, H. Oberst, Jean‐François Bisson

The specular reflection of waves from a periodic set of absorbers/scatterers is interpreted as a spatial version of the Zeno effect. This interpretation reveals the scaling law for the ridged atomic mirrors and allows the simple estimate of the efficiency. The experimental results with various waves confirm this estimate and validate our interpretation.

MOHAMMAD AZADEH and LEE W. CASPERSON

Dmitrii Kouznetsov, H. Oberst, Alexander Neumann +5 more

Recent results on the reflection of waves from ridged mirrors are discussed. Numerical calculations, analytical estimates and the direct measurements of coefficient of specular reflection of atomic waves from solid-state mirrors are combined. The reflectivity is approximated as an elementary function of period L of ridges, their width ℓ, wavenumber K, grazing angle θ and effective depth w of the van der Waals potential. In a special case L = ℓ, the fit reproduces the reflectivity of flat surfaces. Our approximation allows us to optimize the L at given ℓ and estimate the maximum performance of a ridged mirror. Such a mirror is suggested as a focusing element for the nano-scale imaging system. 1.

Peter Hannaford, Krzysztof Sacha