Erlangen 2022 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 58: Matter Wave Optics
Q 58.9: Poster
Thursday, March 17, 2022, 16:30–18:30, P
Ray Tracing for Matter Wave Optics — •Maurice Bardel and Reinhold Walser — Institute of Applied Physics, Technical University Darmstadt, Germany
Ray tracing is an effective method for the semi-classical simulation of the dynamics of thermal clouds [1]. It is based on the idea of studying the dynamics of quantum gases in phase space. For this purpose, the cold thermal clouds (T > TBEC) are described in the Wigner representation. By applying the truncated Wigner approximation (semi-classical limit), the time evolution expressed by the quantum Liouville-von-Neumann equation corresponds to the classical transport equation. This allows us to consider the solutions of the associated Hamilton’s equations to obtain the evolution of the Wigner distribution function.
We simulate the optical guiding of a thermal cloud inside a laser beam (optical dipole potential) and delta kick collimation with magnetic lense [2, 3]. This is helpful for testing and optimising matter wave optics, as needed for matter wave interferometers [1].
References:
[1] Mathias Schneider, Semi-classical description of matter wave interferometers and hybrid quantum systems, Doktorarbeit, Technische Universität Darmstadt (2014)
[2] Hubert Ammann and Nelson Christensen, Delta Kick Cooling: A New Method for Cooling Atoms, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 2088 (1997)
[3] H. Müntinga et al., Interferometry with Bose-Einstein Condensates in Microgravity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 093602 (2013)