Abstract

At the 1990 UFP conference the observation of several kinds of wave packets was reported [1]. All these wavepackets have in common that the wavefunction is localised due to a coherent superposition of eigenstates. The localised ‘particle’ evolves in course of time. The oscillation time of the wavepacket is determined by the inverse spacing of the states out of which the wavepacket is formed. We reported on the localisation of an atomic electron wavefunction by coherent superposition of Rydberg states. Also the observation of exciton wavepackets was reported, as well as the observations of optic phonons in the time domain. At an earlier conference the CalTech group reported already the observation of the oscillation of vibrational wavepackets in diatomic molecules [2].

© 1992 The Author(s)