Imprinting Light Phase on Matter Wave Gratings in Superradiance Scattering

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how the initial phase difference in a two-frequency pump beam can be imprinted onto matter wave gratings in a Bose-Einstein condensate, controlling superradiant scattering behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a method to tune backward mode populations in superradiance by imprinting phase on matter wave gratings, supported by experimental and semiclassical simulation results.

Findings

Backward mode population is fully tunable via initial phase control.

The phase imprinting affects cooperative scattering in superradiance.

Numerical simulations agree with experimental observations.

Abstract

Superradiance scattering from a Bose-Einstein condensate is studied with a two-frequency pumping beam. We demonstrate the possibility of fully tuning the backward mode population as a function of the locked initial relative phase between the two frequency components of the pumping beam. This result comes from an imprinting of this initial relative phase on two matter wave gratings, formed by the forward mode or backward mode condensate plus the condensate at rest, so that cooperative scattering is affected. A numerical simulation using a semiclassical model agrees with our observations.