Title
Pendulum beams: A window into the quantum pendulum
Date Issued
01 January 2019
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
conference paper
Author(s)
Auccapuclla Fabio
Wittler K.
Qin Y.
Publisher(s)
SPIE
Abstract
Parallels between the Helmholtz and Schrodinger equations can be exploited for using light beams to investigate quantum problems. We present the study of a type of non-diffracting beams known as pendulum beams, where the optical modes satisfy a form of the Helmholtz equation that is identical to the Schrodinger equation for the mechanical pendulum. We prepared optical beams in the corresponding eigenmodes and made measurements of their Fourier spectrum. We find remarkable quantitative agreement between the measured angular spectrum and the quantum mechanical probabilities.
Volume
10935
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Óptica
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85064853899
Resource of which it is part
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
ISBN of the container
9781510625129
Conference
Complex Light and Optical Forces XIII 2019 San Francisco 5 February 2019 through 7 February 2019
Sponsor(s)
This work was funded by the grant from the National Science Foundation PHY-1506321 We would like to thank M.R. Dennis for introducing us to this problem and to S. Chávez-Cerda for useful discussions. This work was funded by the grant from the National Science Foundation PHY-1506321.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus