We implemented a multipulse interferometer scheme that allows us to study a quantum kicked rotor by observing dephasing of momentum coherence. Our study shows that momentum coherence can be nearly perfectly preserved under conditions where the mean energy as a function of the kick number is known to increase without bound. The accompanying width narrowing of these coherences may provide a new method for accurate measurement of the recoil frequency.
We use an atom interferometer to investigate the dynamics of matter waves in a periodically pulsed optical standing wave: an atom optics realization of the quantum kicked rotor that exhibits chaotic classical dynamics. We experimentally show that a measure of the coherence between the interferometer diffraction orders can revive after a quick initial loss, and can approach a finite asymptote as the number of kicks increases. This observation demonstrates that quantum fidelity of a classically chaotic system can survive strong perturbations over long times without decay.
