Demonstration of the temporal matter-wave Talbot effect for trapped matter waves

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the temporal matter-wave Talbot effect using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice, revealing fractional Talbot fringes up to 10th order through high-resolution momentum space imaging.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental observation of the temporal matter-wave Talbot effect with trapped ultracold atoms, including high-order fractional fringes.

Findings

Observation of matter-wave collapse and revival

Imaging of fractional Talbot fringes up to 10th order

High-resolution momentum space measurement

Abstract

We demonstrate the temporal Talbot effect for trapped matter waves using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We investigate the phase evolution of an array of essentially non-interacting matter waves and observe matter-wave collapse and revival in the form of a Talbot interference pattern. By using long expansion times, we image momentum space with sub-recoil resolution, allowing us to observe fractional Talbot fringes up to 10th order.