Optics with an Atom Laser Beam

Optics with an atom laser beam.

We report on the atom optical manipulation of an atom laser beam. Reflection, focusing, and its storage in a resonator are demonstrated. Precise and versatile mechanical control over an atom laser beam propagating in an inhomogeneous magnetic field is achieved by optically inducing spin flips between atomic ground states with different magnetic moment. The magnetic force acting on the atoms can...

Guided atom laser : a new tool for guided atom optics

We present a guided atom laser. A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is created in a crossed hybrid magnetic and an elongated optical trap, which acts as a matterwave guide. Atoms are extracted from the BEC by radio frequency (rf) outcoupling and then guided in the horizontal optical matterwave guide. This method allows to control the acceleration of the beam and to achieve large de Broglie wavelen...

Observation of transverse interference fringes on an atom laser beam.

Using the unique detection properties offered by metastable helium atoms we have produced high resolution images of the transverse spatial profiles of an atom laser beam. We observe fringes on the beam, resulting from quantum mechanical interference between atoms that start from rest at different transverse locations within the outcoupling surface and end up at a later time with different veloc...

Beam quality of a nonideal atom laser.

We study the propagation of a noninteracting atom laser distorted by the strong lensing effect of the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) from which it is outcoupled. We observe a transverse structure containing caustics that vary with the density within the residing BEC. Using the WKB approximation, Fresnel-Kirchhoff integral formalism, and ABCD matrices, we are able to describe analytically the at...

A cold atom pyramidal gravimeter with a single laser beam