Atomic de Broglie-Wave Chaos

Jun‐ichi Fujita, Fujio Shimizu

Andrey V. Turlapov, Alexey Tonyushkin, Tycho Sleator

We have demonstrated the Talbot-Lau effect for atomic de Broglie waves in the time domain. This effect is based on Fresnel diffraction of matter waves from an incoherent source. In the experiment, de Broglie waves of atoms in a particular internal state have been manipulated and the resulting density directly imaged by resonant optical fields. These experiments allow us to probe the quantum dynamics of the atomic center of mass. We have also used this effect to create patterns in the density of the atoms with period as small as $1∕10$ of the optical wavelength, demonstrating the potential application of this technique for atom nanofabrication.

J. R. Croca

P. D. Featonby, C. L. Webb, R. M. Lake +4 more

Atom interferometers provide a unique way in which to study atomic de Broglie waves. A number of atom interferometers have now been developed which demonstrate the wave nature of atoms and these have been used for various precision measurements [1], Many of these interferometers use light forces to manipulate the de Broglie waves.

V. I. Balykin

We consider a new approach to the atomic microscopy of the de Broglie waves based on the diffraction rather than refraction phenomenon. It is demonstrated that a diffraction objective that images an object with a magnification of 10 3 can be implemented at appropriate parameters of the atomic-wave diffraction by a circular aperture in a real screen.