Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Interference and Coherence in 1-d Bose-Einstein-Condensates
Jörg Schmiedmayer
Abstract
Atom chips promise manipulation of matter waves with high precision. Our exceptionally smooth atom chips potentials allow to experiment with continuous 1 mm long 1d condensates at strong transversal confinement (>10kHz) and extreme aspect ratio up to 10000. In these atom chip traps we employ RF induced adiabatic potentials to split a 1d condensate along its long axis. Bringing the two split clouds together we observe interference between the two ensembles. The RF potentials allow unprecedented precise control enabling a coherent splitting process as demonstrated by the deterministic and stable phase of the interference. The interference pattern itself is sensitive probe of the order parameter in the 1d quantum gas: