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Observation of optical de Broglie-Mackinnon wave packets

Observation of optical de Broglie-Mackinnon wave packets

Authors :
Hall, Layton A.
Abouraddy, Ayman F.
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

de Broglie wave packets accompanying moving particles are dispersive and lack an intrinsic length scale dictated solely by the particle mass and velocity. Mackinnon proposed almost 45~years ago a localized non-dispersive wave packet constructed out of dispersive de Broglie phase waves via a Copernican inversion of the roles of particle and observer, whereupon an intrinsic length scale emerges by accounting for every possible observer -- rather than by introducing an \textit{ad hoc} uncertainty in the particle velocity. The de Broglie-Mackinnon (dBM) wave packet has nevertheless remained to date a theoretical entity. Here, we report the observation of optical dBM wave packets using paraxial space-time-coupled pulsed laser fields in presence of anomalous group-velocity dispersion. Crucially, the bandwidth of dBM wave packets has an upper limit that is compatible with the wave-packet group velocity and equivalent mass. In contrast to previously observed linear propagation-invariant wave packets whose spatio-temporal profiles at any axial plane are X-shaped, those for dBM wave packets are uniquely O-shaped (circularly symmetric with respect to space and time). By sculpting their spatio-temporal spectral structure, we produce dispersion-free dBM wave packets in the dispersive medium, observe their circularly symmetric spatio-temporal profiles, and tune the field parameters corresponding to particle mass and velocity that uniquely determine the wave-packet length scale.

Subjects

Subjects :
Physics - Optics

Details

Database :
arXiv
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsarx.2302.13194
Document Type :
Working Paper
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01876-6