Diffraction in time is a phenomenon associated with the quantum dynamics of suddenly released
matter waves initially confined in a region of space. It was introduced in 1952 by
Marcos Moshinsky
Marcos Moshinsky Borodiansky (russian: Маркос Мошинский Бородянский; uk, Маркос Мошинскі; 1921–2009) was a Mexican physicist of Ukrainian-Jewish origin whose work in the field of elementary particles wo ...
with the ''shutter problem''.
[
] A matter-wave beam stopped by an absorbing shutter exhibits an oscillatory density profile during its propagation after removal of the shutter. Whenever this propagation is accurately described by the time-dependent
Schrödinger equation
The Schrödinger equation is a linear partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a quantum-mechanical system. It is a key result in quantum mechanics, and its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of the ...
, the transient wave functions resemble the solutions that appear for the intensity of light subject to
Fresnel diffraction
In optics, the Fresnel diffraction equation for near-field diffraction is an approximation of the Kirchhoff–Fresnel diffraction that can be applied to the propagation of waves in the near field. It is used to calculate the diffraction pattern ...
by a straight edge. For this reason, the transient phenomenon was dubbed diffraction in time and has since then been recognised as ubiquitous in quantum dynamics.
[
][
] The experimental confirmation of this phenomenon was only achieved about half a century later in the group of ultracold atoms directed by
Jean Dalibard
Jean Dalibard (born 8 December 1958) is a French physicist, Professor at the École Polytechnique, member of the French Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the École Normale Supérieure. In 2009, Dalibard received the Blaise Pascal medal of ...
.
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]
References
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Diffraction