Wave function phase-coherence

A term that is nearly synonymous with complex numbers or functions is their phase. The rising preoccupation with the wave function phase in the last few decades is beyond doubt, to the extent that the importance of phases has of late become comparable to that of the moduli. (We use Dirac s terminology [7], which writes a wave function by a set of coefficients, the amplitudes, each expressible in terms of its absolute value, its modulus, and its phase. ) There is a related growth of literatm e on interference effects, associated with Aharonov-Bohm and Berry phases [8-14], In parallel, one has witnessed in recent years a trend to construct selectively and to manipulate wave functions. The necessary techifiques to achieve these are also anchored in the phases of the wave function components. This bend is manifest in such diverse areas as coherent or squeezed states [15,16], elecbon bansport in mesoscopic systems [17], sculpting of Rydberg-atom wavepackets [18,19], repeated and nondemolition quantum measurements [20], wavepacket collapse [21], and quantum computations [22,23], Experimentally, the determination of phases frequently utilizes measurement of Ramsey fringes [24] or similar" methods [25]. 

Either two or more molecular levels of a molecule are excited coherently by a spectrally broad, short laser pulse (level-crossing and quantum-beat spectroscopy) or a whole ensemble of many atoms or molecules is coherently excited simultaneously into identical levels (photon-echo spectroscopy). This coherent excitation alters the spatial distribution or the time dependence of the total, emitted, or absorbed radiation amplitude, when compared with incoherent excitation. Whereas methods of incoherent spectroscopy measure only the total intensity, which is proportional to the population density and therefore to the square of the wave function the coherent techniques, on the other hand, yield additional information on the amplitudes and phases of x/r. 

Coherent states and diverse semiclassical approximations to molecular wavepackets are essentially dependent on the relative phases between the wave components. Due to the need to keep this chapter to a reasonable size, we can mention here only a sample of original works (e.g., [202-205]) and some summaries [206-208]. In these, the reader will come across the Maslov index [209], which we pause to mention here, since it links up in a natural way to the modulus-phase relations described in Section III and with the phase-fiacing method in Section IV. The Maslov index relates to the phase acquired when the semiclassical wave function haverses a zero (or a singularity, if there be one) and it (and, particularly, its sign) is the consequence of the analytic behavior of the wave function in the complex time plane. 

Static defects scatter elastically the charge carriers. Electrons do not loose memory of the phase contained in their wave function and thus propagate through the sample in a coherent way. By contrast, electron-phonon or electron-electron collisions are inelastic and generally destroy the phase coherence. The resulting inelastic mean free path, Li , which is the distance that an electron travels between two inelastic collisions, is generally equal to the phase coherence length, the distance that an electron travels before its initial phase is destroyed ... 

Modem electron microscopes with field emission electron sources provide brighter and more coherent electrons. Images with information of crystal stmctures up to 1 A can be achieved. A through-focus exit wave reconstmction method was developed by Coene et al. (1992 1996) to retrieve the complete exit wave function of electrons at the exit surface of the crystal. This method can be applied to thicker crystals which can not be treated as weak-phase object. It is especially useful for stud5dng defects and interfaces (Zandbergen etal, 1999). 

Ultrafast laser excitation gives excited systems prepared coherently, as a coherent superposition of states. The state wave function (aprobabihty wave) is a coherent sum of matter wave functions for each molecule excited. The exponential terms in the relevant time-dependent equation, the phase factors, define phase relationships between constituent wave functions in the summation. 

The matter wave function is formed as a coherent superposition of states or a state ensemble, a wave packet. As the phase relationships change the wave packet moves, and spreads, not necessarily in only one direction the localized launch configuration disperses or propagates with the wave packet. The initially localized wave packets evolve like single-molecule trajectories. 

The concept of coherent control, which we have developed with isolated molecules in the gas phase, is universal and should apply to condensed matter as well. We anticipate that the coherent control of wave functions delocalized over many particles in solids or liquids will be a useful tool to track the temporal evolution of the delocalized wave function modulated by many-body interactions with other particles surrounding itself. We may find a clue to better understand the quantum-classical boundary by observing such dynamical evolution of wave functions of condensed matter. In the condensed phase, however, the coherence lifetime is in principle much shorter than in the gas phase, and the coherent control is more difficult accordingly. In this section, we show our recent efforts to develop the coherent control of condensed matter. 

For a general form of E(t), the excited-state wave function can be thought of as a coherent superposition of Franck-Condon wave packets promoted to the upper state at times t with different weighting factors and phases. At time t each of these wave packets has evolved for a time t—t. ... 

The diagonal elements of density matrices /mm and as already mentioned in Section 3.1, characterize the population of the magnetic sublevels M and p for the states J and J", whilst the non-diagonal elements /mm and (pm, describe the phase coherence of the corresponding wave functions J M) and J M ), or of J" p) and J" p ). Sometimes even special normalized magnitudes... 

Thus far we have dealt with the idealized case of isolated molecules that are neither -subject to external collisions nor display spontaneous emission. Further, we have V assumed that the molecule is initially in a pure state (i.e., described by a wave function) and that the externally imposed electric field is coherent, that is, that the " j field is described by a well-defined function of time [e.g., Eq. (1.35)]. Under these. circumstances the molecule is in a pure state before and after laser excitation and S remains so throughout its evolution. However, if the molecule is initially in a mixed4> state (e.g., due to prior collisional relaxation), or if the incident radiation field is notlf fully coherent (e.g., due to random fluctuations of the laser phase or of the laser amplitude), or if collisions cause the loss of quantum phase after excitation, then J phase information is degraded, interference phenomena are muted, and laser controi. is jeopardized. < f... 

Thus, the fact that there is a well-defined phase relationship between the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian, contained in the wave function, is manifest in the existence of off-diagonal elements in the energy representation. The absence of off-diagonal matrix elements for the thermally eqiulibrated case makes clear that collisions have destroyed matter coherence manifest as quantum correlations between energy eigenstates. 

The problematic nature of the melting transition can be illustrated by comparison with other well-known first-order phase transitions, for instance the normal metal-(low T ) superconductor transition. The normal metal-superconductor and melting transitions have similar symptomatic definitions, the former being a loss of resistance to current flow, and the latter being a loss of resistance to shear. However, superconductivity can also be neatly described as a phonon-mediated (Cooper) pairing of electrons and condensation of Cooper pairs into a coherent ground state wave function. This mechanistic description of the normal metal-super-conductor transition has required considerable theoretical effort for its development, but nevertheless boils down to a simple statement, indicat-... 

To illustrate the exchange of the phase information between the atomic transition and the multipole field, consider the electric dipole Jaynes-Cummings model (34). Assume that the field consists of two circularly polarized components in a coherent state each. The atom is supposed to be initially in the ground state. Then, the time-dependent wave function of the system has the form [53]... 

This expression indicates that the motion of the rotor can no longer be described by a simple quantum movement driven by the preparation of the rotor in a pure rotation state. Several authors have shown that the interaction of a quantum system with a reservoir destroys the phase coherence of any wave packet prepared to profit from more semi-classical-like behavior [23,24]. To demonstrate this below, we use the Madelung polar decomposition [25] of the wave function, Eq. (7). For these purposes, the density matrix technique is usually preferred [26, 27], however, the alternate route practiced here has the advantage of direct extraction of the equations of motion of the rotor alone. 

Two necessary criteria for a theory of superconductivity are a phase coherence of the wave function and an attractive electron-electron interaction. We review how the BCS theory achieves these criteria and then show how a valence bond wave function can also meet these conditions. The energy scale of the latter approach has a larger range in principle than that possible via the electron-phonon interaction. 

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