Reconstruction of engineered atomic wave functions via phase-dependent population measurements

A wave-packet interference technique is proposed to measure exotic atomic Rydberg wave functions. For example, the subject wave packet is excited by an arbitrary pulse or pulse sequence. The resulting wave function is probed by a well-characterized pulse that shares a phase relationship with the excitation pulse(s). The observable is the population in each eigenstate after the probe pulse. By making a series of such measurements, varying the phase between excitation and probe pulses, the wave function created by the excitation pulse can be inferred. The method is experimentally feasible for atomic systems, and the extension of the method to molecular systems also appears possible.