English

Negative-index media for matter-wave optics

Quantum Physics 2015-05-13 v2 Optics

Abstract

We consider the extension of optical meta-materials to matter waves. We show that the generic property of pulsed comoving magnetic fields allows us to fashion the wave-number dependence of the atomic phase shift. It can be used to produce a transient negative group velocity of an atomic wave packet, which results into a negative refraction of the matter wave. Application to slow metastable argon atoms Ar*(3P2) shows that the device is able to operate either as an efficient beam splitter or an atomic meta-lens. Implications of "meta-media" in atom optics are considered.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0811.2479,
  title  = {Negative-index media for matter-wave optics},
  author = {J. Baudon and M. Hamamda and J. Grucker and F. Perales and G. Dutier and M. Boustimi and M. Ducloy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0811.2479},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

4 pages, 4 figures, submitted at PRL 4 November 2008

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