Observation of fractional revivals in the evolution of a Rydberg atomic wave packet

John A. Yeazell and C. R. Stroud, Jr.

Phys. Rev. A 43, 5153 (1991).

Rydberg atomic wave packets have demonstrated striking classical properties. In particular, the wave packets display regions in which they evolve like classical atoms. However, between these regions the wave packet is dispersed and its evolution departs from the classical model. In these nonclassical regions, the wave packet can either be dispersed or coalesced into a number of equally spaced sub-wave-packets. The regions in which the sub-wave-packets appear have come to be known as fractional revivals. This paper reports the observation of these fractional revivals and discusses their implications.

Click here to download the .pdf version of the paper yeazell911.pdf (373 kB)

Previous Abstract

Publications List

Next Abstract

Web page maintained by
Hideomi Nihira ( nihira@optics.rochester.edu ).
Last modified 13 September 2006