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Physical Review A

Diffraction of atoms by a standing wave at Gaussian initial momentum distribution of amplitudes

Artur Mikhailovich Ishkhanyan

Published May 17, 2000• 11 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The role of the initial-state preparation in the coherent diffraction of atoms in the field of a standing wave is considered. It is shown that the time evolution of the atomic wave packet with a Gaussian initial momentum distribution of amplitudes, due to the constructive quantum-mechanical interference, occurs practically without transformation of the initial Gaussian form. Depending on the phases of the initial momentum distribution components, the increment of the atomic momentum can vary from a maximum possible value (determined by the limiting speed of stimulated photon re-emission) to zero. Consequently, the standing wave presents an effective mirror for Gaussian atoms, the reflection angle being controllable.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.61.063611

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Diffraction of atoms by a standing wave at Gaussian initial momentum distribution of amplitudes

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Journal of the Optical Society of America B•Nov 1, 1985•100 citations
The role of the initial-state preparation in the coherent diffraction of atoms in the field of a standing wave is considered. It is shown that the time evolution of the atomic wave packet with a Gaussian initial momentum distribution of amplitudes, due to the constructive quantum-mechanical interference, occurs practically without transformation of the initial Gaussian form. Depending on the phases of the initial momentum distribution components, the increment of the atomic momentum can vary from a maximum possible value (determined by the limiting speed of stimulated photon re-emission) to zero. Consequently, the standing wave presents an effective mirror for Gaussian atoms, the reflection angle being controllable.
The role of the initial state preparation of the coherent diffraction of atoms in the field of a standing wave is considered. It is shown that the time evolution of the atomic wave packet with a Gaussian initial momentum distribution of amplitudes, due to the constructive quantum- mechanical interference, occurs practically without transformation of the initial Gaussian form. Depending on the phases of the initial momentum distribution components, the increment of the atomic momentum can vary from the maximum possible amount (determined by the limiting speed of stimulated photon re-emission acts) to zero. Consequently, for Gaussian atoms the standing wave presents an effective mirror with controllable reflection angle.
The influence of the initial-state preparation on the diffraction of atoms in the field of a standing wave is discussed. The solution of the coherent scattering problem for rather general initial conditions involving initial atomic wave-packet splitting in the momentum space is obtained. A different effect of narrowing of the interference fringes of the diffraction pattern caused by secondary interference during the standing-wave scattering is discovered. The effect takes place at a specific type of initial wave-packet splitting involving two translation states whose momenta differ by even photon momenta, corresponding to the same, ground or excited, internal state. It is shown that a higher-order narrowing can be achieved using binomial wave packets. Further, another case that causes an asymmetrically narrowed diffraction is presented. An atomic-beam-splitting technique based on the preparation of atoms by STIRAP is proposed.
A model of the asymmetric coherent scattering process (caused by initial atomic wave-packet splitting in the momentum space) taking place at the large detuning and adiabatic course of interaction for an effective two-state system interacting with a standing wave of laser radiation is discussed. We show that the same form of initial wave-packet splitting may lead to different, in general, diffraction patterns for opposite, adiabatic and resonant, regimes of the standing-wave scattering. We show that the scattering of the Gaussian wave packet in the adiabatic case presents refraction (a limiting form of the asymmetric scattering) in contrast to the bi-refringence (the limiting case of the high-order narrowed scattering) occurring in the resonant scattering.
Atoms interacting with a standing wave are diffracted into even multiples of photon momentum. We argue that the spreading of the atomic momentum is analogous to the fanning out of Bloch vectors of an ensemble of two-level systems in coherent optics. It is shown that a continuous, time-proportional phase increment of the standing wave reverses the dynamics of the atoms and generates momentum echoes. Monte Carlo wave-function simulations are performed to see how the scheme works for realistic atomic models, taking spontaneous emission into account. Application of the echo formation to lifetime measurements of atoms is proposed.
The influence of the initial state preparation by an interaction with resonant traveling waves on the anomalous standing wave scattering of a two-level system with magnetic sublevels for arbitrary coherency (1) between the atomic sublevels and (2) between the polarizations of counterpropagating waves is discussed. The potential of the magnetic sublevels and light polarization in the formation of specific types of split initial momentum distributions is pointed out. It is found a new effect of narrowing of the interference fringes of the diffraction pattern taking place at particular case of the initial wave packet splitting involving two translation states, whose momenta differ by two photon momenta, corresponding to the same energy level. It is shown that this narrowing can be combined with the known asymmetric scattering.
We consider the interference of atoms caused by the wave nature of their motion. Coherently interfering beams of particles may be obtained by using the diffraction of atoms from separated standing waves resonant with the transition between the ground and excited states of the atoms. Interference arises with and without spatial separation of the diffracted atomic beams. A problem concerning two-quantum perturbation of the wave function of an atom in the ground state by a standing-wave field has been solved. Both amplitude and phase perturbation are taken into account. We show that in spite of the absence of coherence in the incident beam and a rapid decay of the coherence induced by the standing wave for scattered spatially overlapping beams, the interference can be observed for the conditions of an echo. We first consider the phenomenon of an echo under the quantum-mechanical action of light on the translational degrees of freedom. We show that owing to this phenomenon phase memory can be transferred through the ground state over unlimitedly large distances. Owing to the interference of the density harmonics, a periodic structure in the spatial distribution of the atomic density with a period of less than one wavelength of the light is localized at distances of the order of the distance between the fields. The harmonic amplitude is calculated for instantaneous excitation in the case in which the duration of the excitation is comparable with the backward Doppler linewidth in the beam and for scattering under Bragg conditions. In the latter case we show that the effective temperature of the atoms participating in the interference is less than one recoil energy.