Related papers: Atomic diffraction by light gratings with very sho…
The Kapitza - Dirac effect is the diffraction of a well - collimated particle beam by a standing wave of light. Why is this interesting? Comparing this situation to the introductory physics textbook example of diffraction of a laser beam by…
Interactions between atoms and light fields are usually described in the electric-dipole approximation. We show that electric-quadrupole terms are important in the Kapitza-Dirac arrangement for light gratings on resonance with a quadrupole…
In the Kapitza-Dirac effect, atoms, molecules, or swift electrons are diffracted off a standing wave grating of the light intensity created by two counter-propagating laser fields. In ultrafast electron optics, such a coherent beam splitter…
We analyze the diffraction regime of the Kapitza-Dirac effect for particles entangled in momentum. The detection patterns show two-particle interferences. In the single-mode case we identify a discontinuity in the set of joint detection…
We analyze the diffraction of elementary systems as the electron by light gratings when they are described by charge distributions instead of the usual point-like form. The treatment of the problem is based on the introduction, in analogy…
Similar to the optical diffraction of light passing through a material grating, the Kapitza-Dirac effect occurs when an electron is diffracted by a standing light wave. In its original description the effect is time-independent. In the…
In atom optics a material structure is commonly regarded as an amplitude mask for atom waves. However, atomic diffraction patterns formed using material gratings indicate that material structures also operate as phase masks. In this study a…
We extend the study of Kapitza-Dirac diffraction to the case of two-particle systems. Due to the exchange effects the shape and visibility of the two-particle detection patterns show important differences for identical and distinguishable…
Electron matter waves coherently diffract when passing through a periodic structure of light formed by two interfering light waves. In this so-called Kapitza-Dirac effect, the electron momentum changes due to absorption and emission of…
Kapitza-Dirac scattering, the diffraction of matter waves from a standing light field, is widely utilized in ultracold gases, but its behavior in the strongly interacting regime is an open question. Here we develop a numerically-exact…
A few years ago, diffraction of atoms by double slits and gratings was achieved for the first time, and standard optical wave-theory provided an excellent description of the experiments. More recently, diffraction of weakly bound molecules…
The Kapitza-Dirac effect is the diffraction of quantum particles by a standing wave of light. We here report an analogous phenomenon in pilot-wave hydrodynamics, wherein droplets walking across the surface of a vibrating liquid bath are…
In this article we analyze the Casimir-Polder interaction of atoms with a solid grating and an additional repulsive interaction between the atoms and the grating in the presence of an external laser source. The combined potential landscape…
We review recent theoretical models and experiments dealing with the diffraction of neutral atoms from a reflection grating, formed by a standing evanescent wave. We analyze diffraction mechanisms proposed for normal and grazing incidence,…
We develop a versatile theoretical approach to the study of cold-atom diffractive scattering from light-field gratings by combining calculations of the optical near-field, generated by evanescent waves close to the surface of periodic…
In this paper conceptual points regarding electrons elastic (Kapitza-Dirac effect) and inelastic diffraction effect on the different type slowed electromagnetic wave structures/light gratings are considered. From the unified point of view…
We experimentally characterize the positions of the diffraction maxima of a phase grating on a screen, for laser light at oblique incidence (so-called off-plane diffraction or conical diffraction). We discuss the general case of off-plane…
We have studied the optical properties of gratings micro-fabricated into semiconductor wafers, which can be used for simplifying cold-atom experiments. The study entailed characterisation of diffraction efficiency as a function of coating,…
The wave function of an atom passed through a diffraction grating acquires a regular space structure and the interaction of another particle with this atom can be thought of as scattering on a 'quantum grating' composed of a single atom.…
Advances in micro-technology of the last years have made it possible to carry optics textbooks experiments over to atomic and molecular beams, such as diffraction by a double slit or transmission grating. The usual wave-optical approach…