Time Reversal of Atomic Matter Waves

M. Hamamda, F. Perales, G. Dutier +4 more

John Martin, Bertrand Georgeot, Dima L. Shepelyansky

We propose an experimental scheme which allows us to realized approximate time reversal of matter waves for ultracold atoms in the regime of quantum chaos. We show that a significant fraction of the atoms return back to their original state, being at the same time cooled down by several orders of magnitude. We give a theoretical description of this effect supported by extensive numerical simulations. The proposed scheme can be implemented with existing experimental setups.

Robin Kaiser, Christoph Ira Westbrook, François David

Dietmar Fischer, Stefan H. Kienle, Wolfgang P. Schleich +2 more

Brian H. Kolner

An imaging system is proposed for matter-wave functions, which is based on producing a quadratic phase modulation on the wavefunction of a charged particle, analogous to that produced by a space or time lens. The modulation is produced by co-propagating the wavepacket within an extremum of the harmonic vector and scalar potentials associated with a slow-wave electromagnetic structure. By preceding and following this interaction with appropriate dispersion, which is characteristic of a solution to the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, a system results that is capable of magnifying (i.e., stretching or compressing the space- and time-scales) and time-reversing an arbitrary quantum wavefunction.

Holger Müller