Matter waves in a new light

Mark E. Brezinski

Stefan Bernet, Roland Abfalterer, Claudia Keller +3 more

We present diffraction experiments where the roles of light and material are inverted with respect to usual holography. Atomic matter waves are diffracted at grating structures composed of standing light waves. In contrast to material holograms, our light gratings can be manipulated during the passage of an atomic matter wave, resulting in new diffraction features. We demonstrate similarities and differences between material and light holograms.

Christoph Vo, Stefan Riedl, Simon Baur +2 more

A classical logic gate connecting input and output light pulses is demonstrated. The gate operation is based on three steps: First, two incoming light pulses are stored in a Bose-Einstein condensate; second, atomic four-wave mixing generates a new matter wave; and third, the light pulses are retrieved. In the presence of the new matter wave, the retrieval generates a new optical wave. The latter will only be generated if both input light pulses are applied, thus realizing an AND gate. Finally, we show that the gate operation is phase coherent, an essential prerequisite for a quantum logic gate.

Steven S. Andrews

Ksenija Simonović, Richard Ferstl, Alfredo Di Silvestro +6 more

, 266 nm) light masks, where a rich variety of photo-physical and photo-chemical phenomena and relaxation pathways must be considered. The improved understanding of the mechanisms in this interaction opens new potential pathways to protein interferometry and to matter-wave enhanced sensing of molecular properties.

Kerry Kuehn