| We are presently performing double-slit experiments with two-dimensional microwave billiards of regular and chaotic dynamics, respectively. The experiments were stimulated by work of Casati and Prosen who investigated numerically the interference pattern behind the double-slit caused by the leakage of a wave packet originating from within a quantum billiard. They showed that the interference pattern depends on the billiard geometry. In recent experiments with water surface waves stationary patterns are observed but these cannot really distinguish between effects due to the chaotic and regular dynamics in the two billiards, respectively. We attack the problem with (i) microwaves by exciting the two billiards with a single point-like antenna emitting microwaves at fixed frequency and (ii) with a linear array of emitting antennas. In the first case we observe a clear dependence of the interference patterns on the billiard geometry. For the second case a directed wave packet is excited by combining successively measured frequency spectra. The time evolution of the electromagnetic wave packet provides a further way of studying the predicted dependence of the interference pattern on the billiard geometry. Connection of the escape times through the slits and classical periodic orbits is also shown. |
|