College of Science

Physical, Biological, Mathematical and Computational Sciences

Physics and Astronomy Seminar

Scattering and Guiding with Atom Walls

Friday, March 28, 2008 - 11:30am
Speaker:
Jay Vainshnav, NIST
Location:
Research Building, Room 302

Abstract

e propose the possibility of using a wall of atoms to guide matter waves, e.g. electrons or other atoms, in a manner similar to which a fiber
optic guides light. Such walls could be engineered from individual atoms by scanning tunneling microscopy, for instance. We model the atomic wall
as a quasi-1D array of scatterers embedded in 2D; our theoretical study reveals the interplay of scattering phenomena with bands and conduction
along the array. We discuss the conditions under which straight or curved arrays of atoms can guide a beam focused on one end of the array.

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