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Crystallography Reports

Surface matter waves caused by the absorption of nonrelativistic particles

R. Ch. Bokun, Yu. V. Kistovich

Published Sep 1, 2005• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The existence of surface states of nonrelativistic particles at the interface between a vacuum and a layer of a material on a reflecting substrate, which are caused by the absorption in the layer rather than the presence of discrete levels, is established. The wave functions of such states (surface matter waves) are found and the domains of their existence in the complex plane of the “optical” potential (both attractive and repulsive) of the layer are determined. Threshold effects of the count of microparticles at the intersection of the boundaries of these domains are revealed. The spatial characteristics of the surface matter waves are calculated. An example of the layer composition providing the existence of such waves is given for ultracold neutrons. The increase in the loss of trapped ultracold neutrons owing to the excitation of the surface matter waves of these particles in the trap walls is discussed.

DOI
10.1134/1.2049409

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The existence of surface states of nonrelativistic particles at the interface between a vacuum and a layer of a material on a reflecting substrate, which are caused by the absorption in the layer rather than the presence of discrete levels, is established. The wave functions of such states (surface matter waves) are found and the domains of their existence in the complex plane of the “optical” potential (both attractive and repulsive) of the layer are determined. Threshold effects of the count of microparticles at the intersection of the boundaries of these domains are revealed. The spatial characteristics of the surface matter waves are calculated. An example of the layer composition providing the existence of such waves is given for ultracold neutrons. The increase in the loss of trapped ultracold neutrons owing to the excitation of the surface matter waves of these particles in the trap walls is discussed.
Abstract\nnumbers: 03.75.-b Matter Waves 03.75.Be Atom and Neutron Optics 37.10.Gh Atom Traps and Guides 42.25.-p Wave Optics ABSTRACT Semi-evanescent and evanescent matter-waves produced by an atom wave packet impinging a repulsive barrier can be back-refracted and reconstructed by the application of negative-index " comoving " potential pulses. One shows that those collapses and revivals generate a matter wave confined on both sides of the barrier border (" surface matter wave ") and should be observable via the retardation of atom reflection from the barrier interface. This property, joined to the possibility recently demonstrated of inducing negative refraction of atom waves, makes such potentials a matter-wave counterpart of negative-index materials or " meta materials " well-known in light optics.
Evanescent matter-waves produced by an atom wave packet incident onto a repulsive barrier edge can be back-refracted and reconstructed by the application of negative-index "comoving" potential pulses. One shows that those collapses and revivals of evanescent matter waves give rise to surface matter waves and should be observable via atom reflection echoes issued from the barrier interface. This property, together with the property of inducing negative refraction, makes such potentials the matter-wave counterpart of negative-index materials in light optics.
We study scattering of ultracold atoms by absorbing surfaces. Loss of flux through inelastic reactions and adsorption is described in an unambiguous and model-independent way by incoming boundary conditions in the semiclassical region near the surface. The near-threshold behaviour of the scattering amplitude is determined by a few parameters of the potential tail beyond the semiclassical region. Investigation of quantum reflection and scattering by flat and spherical surfaces shows that the curvature of the surface strongly influences the range to which the scattering amplitudes are sensitive in the atom-surface interaction.
We investigate the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for the case of a plane matter wave incident on an oscillating potential step. Approximate solutions are given for different regimes of the problem. The resulting energy spectra are quantized. This may either be interpreted as a phase modulation of the wave or as a coherent multiphonon exchange. A comparison to the results that apply for a beam of classical particles is made. In particular, the transition from the quantum-mechanical to the classical case is examined. We have performed an experiment with very cold neutrons that clearly revealed the discussed effects. Energy splittings of 2.8 to 9.1 neV of the reflected waves were analyzed with an energy resolution of \ensuremath{\sim}1 neV, thus demonstrating the feasibility of such high-resolution experiments with neutron reflectometry. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Atom-laser interaction is at the heart of the vibrant field of quantum optics. The dynamical properties of a moving atom submitted to a laser radiation are strongly \ninfluenced by the position- and time-dependence of the latter. The full physical state of the atom must include information about the centre-of-mass motion and the internal structure of the atom. It is challenging to obtain a complete description of the full state of the atom. However, there exists an alternative approach to the dynamics of an atom in the presence of a laser, which is based on the concept of matter-wave absorption. \n \nIn this thesis, we theoretically study the nonrelativistic one-dimensional motion of an electrically neutral quantum particle in the presence of a thin time-dependent absorber, representing the laser radiation. Our aim is to better understand the precise connection between time-dependent matter-wave absorption and the interaction between an atom and a localised time-dependent laser. \n \nOur analysis is based on two different approaches to the problem. The first one describes the moving atom by a two-level system, and represents the laser radiation \nby an off-diagonal δ-potential. The second model treats the atom as a structureless particle, and describes the laser by a time-dependent absorbing barrier. While the \nformer model can be derived from first principles, the treatment of the absorbing barrier in the latter model lacks a rigorous quantum mechanical justification. The \nmain outcome of our work is to provide a solid physical ground for the absorber model, by explicitly connecting it to the δ-potential model. We have thus extended \nthe range of theoretical tools useful for investigating the effects of time-dependent laser radiation on quantum matter.
We discuss heating and decoherence in traps for ions and neutral particles close to metallic surfaces. We focus on simple trap geometries and compute noise spectra of thermally excited electromagnetic fields. If the trap is located in the near field of the substrate, the field fluctuations are largely increased compared to the level of the blackbody field, leading to much shorter coherence and life times of the trapped atoms. The corresponding time constants are computed for ion traps and magnetic traps. Analytical estimates for the size dependence of the noise spectrum are given. We finally discuss prospects for the coherent transport of matter waves in integrated surface waveguides.