Related papers: Optical manipulation of matter waves
Nonlinear optical phenomena such as parametric amplification and frequency conversion are typically driven by external optical fields. Free electrons can also act as electromagnetic sources, offering unmatched spatial precision. Combining…
Intense light-matter interaction largely relies on the use of high-power light sources, creating fields comparable to, or even stronger than, the field keeping the electrons bound in atoms. Under such conditions, the interaction induces…
Metasurfaces with unparalleled controllability of light have shown great potential to revolutionize conventional optics. However, they mainly work with free-space light input, which makes it difficult for full on-chip integration. On the…
The search for new control methods over light-matter interactions is one of the engines that advances fundamental physics and applied science alike. A specific class of light-matter interaction interfaces are setups coupling photons of…
Controlled interaction of laser light with electron beams is fundamental for ultrafast electron microscopy and electron-based quantum optics, yet their direct coupling is forbidden in free space. Here we use longitudinally polarized light…
We investigate theoretically, numerically and experimentally nonlinear optical waves in an absorbing out-of-equilibrium colloidal material at the gelification transition. At sufficiently high optical intensity, absorption is frustrated and…
Electromagnetic waves carry energy, linear momentum, and angular momentum. When light (or other electromagnetic radiation) interacts with material media, both energy and momentum are usually exchanged. The force and torque experienced by…
The interference of matter waves is one of the intriguing features of quantum mechanics that has impressed researchers and laymen since it was first suggested almost a century ago. Nowadays, attosecond science tools allow us to utilize it…
Optical tweezers employing forces produced by light underpin important manipulation tools in many areas of applied and biological physics. Conventional optical tweezers are based on refractive optics, and they require excessive auxiliary…
The area of trapping the atoms or molecules using light has advanced tremendously in the last few decades. In contrast, the idea of controlling (not only trapping) the movement of atomic-sized particles using quantum mechanical matter waves…
We study matter wave scattering from an ultracold, many body atomic system trapped in an optical lattice. We determine the angular cross section that a matter wave probe sees and show that it is strongly affected by the many body phase,…
It is shown that matter solitons can be effectively managed by means of smooth variations of parameters of optical lattices in which the condensate is loaded. The phenomenon is based on the effect of lattice modulations on the carrier wave…
Interactions between light and matter play an instrumental role in many fields of science, giving rise to important applications in spectroscopy, sensing, quantum information processing, and lasers. In most of these applications, light is…
Light is the fundamental medium through which we perceive the world around us. In the modern era, light can not only be used in its raw form but can also be used as a versatile tool. Generally, light fields carry energy and momentum (both…
The subject of optomechanics involves interactions between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom, and is currently of great interest as an enabler of fundamental investigations in quantum mechanics, as well as a platform for…
The coherent interaction between free electrons and optical near-fields enables the active modulation of electron wave packets, a mechanism central to photon-induced near-field electron microscopy (PINEM). While existing theories…
We experimentally study the scattering of guided matter waves on an amplitude-modulated optical lattice. We observe different types of frequency-dependent dips in the asymptotic output density distribution. Their positions are compared…
Light can carry a spin angular momentum, an intrinsic and extrinsic orbital angular momentum, associated with a circular polarization, optical vortex beams, and varying beam trajectories, respectively. The interplay between these momenta…
Exciting electrons in solids with intense light pulses offers the possibility of generating new states of matter through nonthermal means and controlling their macroscopic properties on femto- to picosecond timescales. One way to manipulate…
We report the first experimental demonstration of combined spatial and temporal control of light trajectories through opaque media. This control is achieved by solely manipulating spatial degrees of freedom of the incident wavefront. As an…