Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 15: Ultra-cold atoms, ions and BEC II (with Q)

A 15.6: Talk

Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 15:45–16:00, C/HSW

Suppression and Revival of Weak Localization through Control of Time-Reversal Symmetry — •Kilian Müller¹, Jérémie Richard¹, Valentin Volchkov¹, Vincent Denechaud¹, Philippe Bouyer², Alain Aspect¹, and Vincent Josse¹ — ¹Institut d'Optique, Université Paris Sud 11, Palaiseau, France — ²Institut d'Optique, Université Bordeaux 1, Talence, France

Phase coherence can have an important effect on the propagation of waves in disorder. Emblematic phenomena are weak localization and coherent backscattering (CBS). At their heart they rely on the constructive interference between time-reversed multiple scattering paths.

We report on the observation of suppression and revival of CBS of ultra-cold atoms launched in an optical disorder and submitted to a short dephasing pulse [1], as proposed in a recent paper of T. Micklitz et al. [2]. This observation, in a quasi-2D geometry, demonstrates a novel and general method to study weak localization by manipulating time reversal symmetry in disordered systems. In future experiments, this scheme could be extended to investigate higher order localization processes at the heart of Anderson (strong) localization.

[1] K. Müller, J. Richard, V.V. Volchkov, V. Denechaud, P. Bouyer, A. Aspect, and V. Josse, arXiv:1411.1671 [2] T. Micklitz, C. A. Müller, and A. Altland, arXiv:1406.6915