Diffraction in time
Diffraction of matter waves at the quantum scale
title: "Diffraction in time" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["diffraction"] description: "Diffraction of matter waves at the quantum scale" topic_path: "general/diffraction" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_in_time" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Diffraction of matter waves at the quantum scale ::
In quantum physics, diffraction in time is a phenomenon associated with the quantum dynamics of suddenly released matter waves initially confined in a region of space. It was introduced in 1952 by Ukrainian-Mexican physicist Marcos Moshinsky with the shutter problem. |title=Diffraction in time |journal=Physical Review |volume=88 |issue=3 |pages=625–631 |year=1952 |doi = 10.1103/PhysRev.88.625 |bibcode = 1952PhRv...88..625M }} A matter-wave beam stopped by an absorbing shutter exhibits an oscillatory density profile during its propagation after removal of the shutter. Whenever this propagation is accurately described by the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, the transient wave functions resemble the solutions that appear for the intensity of light subject to Fresnel diffraction by a straight edge. For this reason, the transient phenomenon was dubbed diffraction in time and has since then been recognised as ubiquitous in quantum dynamics. |title=Exact solutions for time-dependent phenomena in quantum mechanics |journal=Physics Reports |volume=236 |issue=6 |pages=331–393 |year=1994 |doi = 10.1016/0370-1573(94)90029-9 |bibcode= 1994PhR...236..331K |last2=García-Calderón|first2=G. |last3=Muga|first3=J. G. |title=Quantum transients |journal=Physics Reports |volume=476 |issue=1–3 |pages=1–50 |year=2009 |doi = 10.1016/j.physrep.2009.03.002 |arxiv = 0812.3034 |bibcode = 2009PhR...476....1D |s2cid=14760900 The experimental confirmation of this phenomenon was only achieved about half a century later in the group of ultracold atoms directed by Jean Dalibard. |last1 = Szriftgiser |first1=A. |last2=Guéry-Odelin|first2=D. |last3=Arndt|first3=M. |last4=Dalibard|first4=J. |title=Atomic Wave Diffraction and Interference Using Temporal Slits |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=77 |issue=1 |pages=4–7 |year=1996 |doi =10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.4|bibcode=1996PhRvL..77....4S|pmid=10061757 Photonic analog of the time diffraction was also observed with a temporal double-slit configuration in 2023 with a group directed by John Pendry and Riccardo Sapienza.
References
References
- (2023). "Double-slit time diffraction at optical frequencies". [[Nature Physics]].
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