Temporal Talbot interferometer of strongly interacting molecular Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

Talbot interferometer, as a periodic reproduction of momentum distribution in the time domain, finds significant applications in multiple research. The inter-particle interactions during the diffraction and interference process introduce numerous many-body physics problems, leading to unconventional interference characteristics. This work investigates both experimentally and theoretically the influence of interaction in a Talbot interferometer with a $^{6}\rm Li_2$ molecular Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional optical lattice, with interaction strength directly tunable via magnetic Feshbach resonance. A clear dependence of the period and amplitude of signal revivals on the interaction strength can be observed. While interactions increase the decay rate of the signal and advance the revivals, we find that over a wide range of interactions, the Talbot interferometer remains highly effective over a certain evolutionary timescale, including the case of fractional Talbot interference. This work provides insight into the interplay between interaction and the coherence properties of a temporal Talbot interference in optical lattices, paving the way for research into quantum interference in strongly interacting systems.