Abstract
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 transverse 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 velocities at the same transverse position. Further, for high outcoupling rates we see the emergence of structure on the beam profile, which is not predicted by the usual Gross-Pitaevskii equation.
© 2007 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
Geoff M. Lee, Ashton S. Bradley, and Matthew J. Davis
QWE26 Quantum-Atom Optics Downunder (QAO) 2007
Masahiro Yanagisawa and Matthew R. James
QWE9 Quantum-Atom Optics Downunder (QAO) 2007
M. Pinard, A. Maître, A. Petrossian, J. Y. Courtois, and G. Grynberg
ThG1 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) 1992