Wednesday, March 6, 2013

1303.1137 (Rockson Chang et al.)

Observation of Transient Momentum-Space Interference During Scattering
of a Condensate From an Optical Barrier
   [PDF]

Rockson Chang, Shreyas Potnis, Christopher W. Ellenor, Mirco Siercke, Alex Hayat, Aephraim M. Steinberg
Scattering theory traditionally deals with the asymptotic behaviour of a system far removed from the actual scattering event. Here we present an experimental study of the one-dimensional scattering of a non-interacting condensate of 87-Rb atoms from a potential barrier in the non-asymptotic regime, for which the collision dynamics are still ongoing. We show that for near-transparent barriers, there are two distinct transient scattering effects that arise and dramatically change the momentum distribution during the collision: a deceleration of wavepacket components in mid-collision, and an interference between incident and transmitted portions of the wavepacket. Both effects lead to the re-distribution of momenta giving rise to a rich interference pattern that can be used to perform reconstruction of the single-particle phase profile.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.1137

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