Abstract

There is currently much interest in developing efficient mirrors and beamsplitters for beams of laser-cooled atoms for atom optics and interferometry. A new approach, which does not rely on light fields and hence avoids the complication of spontaneous emission, is to use the interaction between a static inhomogeneous magnetic field and the permanent magnetic dipole moment of the atom [1-4]. In the scheme proposed by Opat et al. [1], a spatially varying periodic magnetic field generated at a flat surface produces a magnetic energy density that falls off exponentially with distance from the surface. Atoms in positive magnetic states (mg_F>0) moving adiabatically towards the surface are then repelled by the increasing magnetic energy density, and the surface behaves as a magnetostatic min or for slowly moving atoms.

© 1996 Optical Society of America