Scattering of accelerated wave packets
Abstract
Wave-packet scattering from a stationary potential is significantly modified when the wave-packet is subject to an external time-dependent force during the interaction. In the semiclassical limit, wave--packet motion is simply described by Newtonian equations and the external force can, for example, cancel the potential force making a potential barrier transparent. Here we consider wave-packet scattering from reflectionless potentials, where in general the potential becomes reflective when probed by an accelerated wave-packet. In the particular case of the recently-introduced class of complex Kramers-Kronig potentials we show that a broad class of time dependent forces can be applied without inducing any scattering, while there is a breakdown of the reflectionless property when there is a broadband distribution of initial particle momentum, involving both positive and negative components.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1803.04634,
title = {Scattering of accelerated wave packets},
author = {S. Longhi and S. A. R. Horsley and G. Della Valle},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.04634},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
13 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. A