Roberts TD, Cronin AD, Kokorowski DA, Pritchard DE. Glory oscillations in the index of refraction for matter waves.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2002;
89:200406. [PMID:
12443465 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.89.200406]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2002] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
We have measured the index of refraction for sodium de Broglie waves in gases of Ar, Kr, Xe, and N2 over a wide range of sodium velocities. We observe glory oscillations--a velocity-dependent oscillation in the forward scattering amplitude. An atom interferometer was used to observe glory oscillations in the phase shift caused by the collision, which are larger than glory oscillations observed in the cross section. The glory oscillations depend sensitively on the shape of the interatomic potential, allowing us to discriminate among various predictions for these potentials, none of which completely agrees with our measurements.
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