Hannover 2003 – scientific programme

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A: Atomphysik

A 17: Postersitzung 2

A 17.2: Poster

Thursday, March 27, 2003, 16:00–18:30, Poster

Interference of Ultrashort Free Electron Wave Packets: Analogy to Optics — •Christian Horn, Christian Horn, Matthias Wollenhaupt, Andreas Assion, Oksana Bazhan, Dirk Liese, Christian Sarpe-Tudoran, Thomas Baumert, Matthias Wollenh aupt, Andreas Assion, Oksana Bazhan, and Christian Sarpe-Tudoran — Universität Kassel, Fachbereich Physik, Heinrich-Plett-Str. 40, D-34132 Kassel

Abstract: In a recent experiment interferences of free electron wave packets generated by a pair of identical, time-delayed, femtosecond laser pulses have been observed [1]. Initially a double peaked wave packet is prepared by photoionization. Due to the dispersion of matter waves the wave packets spread and overlap giving rise to interference structures. The shape of the wave function eventually converges to the photoelectron spectrum taken on a spatial scale. In this contribution we show the analogy of the propagation of matter waves in vacuum to the propagation of light pulses in dispersive media. We discuss the measurement of a conjugate variable, i.e. the momentum distribution in coordinate space for matter waves in comparison to measurements of the frequency spectrum in time domain for light pulses.

[1] M. Wollenhaupt, A. Assion, D. Liese, Ch. Sarpe-Tudoran, T. Baumert, S. Zamith, M.A. Bouchene, B. Girard, A. Flettner, U. Weichmann and G. Gerber. Phys. Rev. Lett 89, 173001 (2002).