Ratchet Effect in the Quantum Kicked Rotor and its Destruction by Dynamical Localization

Abstract: We study experimentally a quantum kicked rotor with broken parity symmetry, supporting a ratchet effect due to the presence of a classical accelerator mode. We show that the short-time dynamics is very well described by the classical dynamics, characterized by a strongly asymmetric momentum distribution with directed motion on one side, and an anomalous diffusion on the other. At longer times, quantum effects lead to dynamical localization, causing an asymptotic resymmetrization of the wave function.