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Article
Matter-Wave Self-Imaging by Atomic Center-of-Mass Motion Induced Interference
Physical Review Letters (2008)
  • Ke Li
  • L. Deng
  • E. W. Hagley
  • Marvin G. Payne, Georgia Southern University
  • M. S. Zhan, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Abstract
We demonstrate matter-wave self-imaging resulting from atomic center-of-mass motion-based interference. We show that non-negligible atomic center-of-mass motion and an instantaneous Doppler shift can drastically change the condensate momentum distribution, resulting in a periodic collapse and the recurrence of condensate diffraction probability as a function of the stationary light-field pulsing time. The observed matter-wave self-imaging is characterized by an atomic center-of-mass motion induced population amplitude interference in the presence of the light field that simultaneously minimizes all high (n≥1) diffraction orders and maximizes the zeroth diffraction component.
Keywords
  • Matter-wave self-imaging,
  • Atomic center-of-mass motion-based interference,
  • Condensate momentum distribution,
  • Condensate diffraction probability
Disciplines
Publication Date
December 18, 2008
Publisher Statement
Authors have the right to use all or part of the Article, including the APS-prepared version without revision or modification, on the author(s)’ web home page or employer’s website. Article obtained from Physical Review Letters.
Citation Information
Ke Li, L. Deng, E. W. Hagley, Marvin G. Payne, and M. S. Zhan. "Matter-Wave Self-Imaging by Atomic Center-of-Mass Motion Induced Interference" Physical Review Letters 101.250401 (2008).
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.250401