Output Coupler for Bose-Einstein Condensed Atoms

Mewes, M.-O.; Andrews, M. R.; Kurn, D. M.; Durfee, Dallin; Townsend, C. G.; Ketterle, Wolfgang

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.78.582

Cited by 740 publications

(671 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Employing atom laser sources in matter wave gravity gradiometers promises to boost the sensitivity of these devices by yet further orders of magnitude. Early results from the group of Ketterle at MIT 61 …”

Section: Atom Lasersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum technology: the second quantum revolution

Dowling

Milburn

2003

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Seri

794

609

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Abstract.We are currently in the midst of a second quantum revolution. The first quantum revolution gave us new rules that govern physical reality. The second quantum revolution will take these rules and use them to develop new technologies. In this review we discuss the principles upon which quantum technology is based and the tools required to develop it. We discuss a number of examples of research programs that could deliver quantum technologies in coming decades including; quantum information technology, quantum electromechanical systems, coherent quantum electronics, quantum optics and coherent matter technology.

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Section: Atom Lasersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum technology: the second quantum revolution

Dowling

Milburn

2003

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Seri

794

609

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“…Pp, 39.20.+q, 42.60.Jf,41.85.Ew The Bose-Einstein condensation of atoms in the lowest level of a trap represents the matter-wave analog to the accumulation of photons in a single mode of a laser cavity. In analogy to photonic lasers, atom lasers can be obtained by outcoupling from a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) to free space [1,2,3]. However, since atoms are massive particles, gravity plays an important role in the laser properties: in the case of rf outcouplers, it lies at the very heart of the extraction process [4] and in general, the beam is strongly accelerated downwards, causing a rapid decrease of the de Broglie wavelength.…”

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confidence: 99%

Guided Quasicontinuous Atom Laser

et al. 2006

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We report the first realization of a guided quasicontinuous atom laser by rf outcoupling a BEC, from a hybrid optomagnetic trap into a horizontal atomic waveguide. This configuration allows us to cancel the acceleration due to gravity and keep the de Broglie wavelength constant at 0.5 µm during 0.1 s of propagation. We also show that our configuration, equivalent to pigtailing an optical fiber to a (photon) semiconductor laser, ensures an intrinsically good transverse mode matching.PACS numbers: 03.75. Pp, 39.20.+q, 42.60.Jf,41.85.Ew The Bose-Einstein condensation of atoms in the lowest level of a trap represents the matter-wave analog to the accumulation of photons in a single mode of a laser cavity. In analogy to photonic lasers, atom lasers can be obtained by outcoupling from a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) to free space [1,2,3]. However, since atoms are massive particles, gravity plays an important role in the laser properties: in the case of rf outcouplers, it lies at the very heart of the extraction process [4] and in general, the beam is strongly accelerated downwards, causing a rapid decrease of the de Broglie wavelength. With the growing interest in coherent atom sources for atom interferometry [5,6,7] and new studies of quantum transport phenomena [8,9,10,11,12,13,14] where large and well defined de Broglie wavelength are desirable, a better control of the atomic motion during its propagation is needed. One solution is to couple the atom laser into a horizontal waveguide, so that the effect of gravity is canceled, leading to the realization of a coherent matter wave with constant wavelength.We report in this letter on the realization of such a guided quasicontinuous atom laser, where the coherent source, i.e. the trapped BEC, and the guide are merged together in a hybrid combination of a magnetic Ioffe-Pritchard trap and a horizontally elongated far offresonance optical trap constituting an atomic waveguide (see Fig. 1). The BEC, in a state sensitive to both trapping potentials, is submitted to a rf outcoupler yielding atoms in a state sensitive only to the optical potential, resulting in an atom laser propagating along the weak confining axis of the optical trap. In addition to canceling the effect of gravity, this configuration has several advantages. Firstly, coupling into a guide from a BEC rather than from a thermal sample [15] allows us to couple a significant flux into a small number of transverse modes of the guide. Secondly, the weak longitudinal trapping potential of the guide can be compensated by the antitrapping potential due to the second order Zeeman effect acting onto the outcoupled atoms, resulting in an atom laser with a quasiconstant de Broglie wavelength. Thirdly, using an rf outcoupler rather than releasing a BEC into a guide [14,16] results into quasicontinuous operation, thus insuring sharp linewidth, and gives a better control on the beam parameters. Indeed, changing the frequency of the outcoupler allows one to tune the value of the de Broglie wavelength of the atom...

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“…First, magnetically-trapped Bose-Einstein condensates were produced in the |F = 1, m F = −1 hyperfine state and transferred to an optical trap [44]. Then, we pulsed on rf fields of variable strength which were swept in frequency to distribute the optically-trapped atoms among the F = 1 hyperfine sublevels by the method of adiabatic rapid passage [106]. High amplitudes or slow sweep rates transferred all the atoms from one hyperfine state to another, while low amplitudes or fast sweep rates transferred just a fraction of the atoms.…”

Section: Experimental Methods For the Study Of Spinor Condensatesmentioning

confidence: 99%