High-Resolution Interference Patterns using Nonlinear Absorption

Peter Powers

Atusi Kurita, Yasuo Kanematsu, Masahito Watanabe +2 more

We report observations of a new optical memory effect in Sm-doped ZnS nanocrystals and elucidate its mechanism. One of the salient properties of this effect is that the incident angle as well as the wavelength of incoming light is memorized with high resolution. We show that this effect is not based upon spectral selection of homogeneous absorption lines as in the persistent spectral hole-burning effect but upon recording of interference patterns of multiple-scattered light in disordered media.

Xiong Jun, Huang Feng, De-Zhong Cao +3 more

We propose a scheme to achieve super-resolution of interference pattern with independent laser beams. We perform an experimental observation of a double-slit interference with two orthogonally polarized laser beams. The resolution of the interference pattern measured by a two-photon detection is doubled provided the two beams illuminate the double-slit with certain incident angles. The scheme is simple and can favour both high intensity and perfect visibility.

Wolfgang Demtröder

The cover page of 2009 shows high-resolution interference “quantum carpet” patterns for the momentum wave function of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). As time progresses (from back to front), the many-body mean field interaction of the BEC first leads to a broadening of the wave function, but then also to a time-varying interference structure by inducing site-dependent nonlinear phase shifts when the BEC is confined in a spatially periodic potential. Imaging the wave function in momentum space for different times leads to a pattern that one reminds of a carefully woven carpet and is hence termed “quantum carpet”. Quantum carpets beautifully demonstrate the surprisingly high matter wave coherence of particle-particle interactions in the zero-temperature limit.