Two-dimensional simulation of quantum reflection

TL;DR

This paper introduces a 2D simulation method for quantum wave packet scattering from surfaces, enabling efficient modeling of quantum reflection phenomena and comparison with experimental data.

Contribution

It presents a novel two-dimensional propagation method for simulating quantum reflection, which is computationally efficient and applicable to realistic surface potentials.

Findings

Simulations show how surface corrugation affects reflectivity.

Method requires reasonable computational resources.

Potential for quantitative comparison with experiments.

Abstract

A propagation method for the scattering of a quantum wave packet from a potential surface is presented. It is used to model the quantum reflection of single atoms from a corrugated (metallic) surface. Our numerical procedure works well in two spatial dimensions requiring only reasonable amounts of memory and computing time. The effects of the surface corrugation on the reflectivity are investigated via simulations with a paradigm potential. These indicate that our approach should allow for future tests of realistic, effective potentials obtained from theory in a quantitative comparison to experimental data.