Quantum billiard atom optics
Abstract
The phenomenon of fractional self-imaging can be used to implement atom-optical components in the interior of a rectangular quantum billiard. Their temporal concatenation may lead to complex "atom chips" operating in the time-domain. As an elementary example, we discuss a billiard internal Mach-Zehnder interferometer that can be transformed into an all-optical switch or controllable beam splitter for atoms. The inherent coherence and reversibility of its dynamics also provides a simple means to realize a Welcher Weg/Quantum erasure experiment. The whole concept is shown to be robust with respect to realistic wall-softness effects and feasible within the present state of the art.
- Publication:
-
EPL (Europhysics Letters)
- Pub Date:
- November 2002
- DOI:
- 10.1209/epl/i2002-00268-x
- Bibcode:
- 2002EL.....60..505R
- Keywords:
-
- 03.75.Be;
- 42.50.Vk;
- 03.65.Sq;
- Atom and neutron optics;
- Mechanical effects of light on atoms molecules electrons and ions;
- Semiclassical theories and applications