Observation de la force de van der Waals dans le miroir à atomes

Atomic reflection off conductor walls as a tool in cold atom traps

“…The primary aim of this article is the study of reflection of atoms whose normal velocity components are such that the motion is regarded as classical and so far removed from the regime in which quantum reflection occurs [4][5][6]. The physical principles in the classical regime are closely linked to those underlying an atom mirror [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] -a device which acts to repel atoms from its surface before they become subject to the influence of the attractive van der Waals force. A specific type of atom mirror that has been the subject of considerable investigation is the evanescent mode atom mirror.…”