Talbot-Lau effect for atomic de Broglie waves manipulated with light (5 pages)

Jun‐ichi Fujita, Fujio Shimizu

Klaus Hornberger, Stefan Gerlich, Hendrik Ulbricht +5 more

wave dynamical diffraction analogue of Talbot effect

Sitti Buathong, Sorakrai Srisuphaphon, Pissunee Deechuen +4 more

T. Kohno, Shinya Suzuki, Kazuko Shimizu

Andrey V. Turlapov, Alexey Tonyushkin, Tycho Sleator

We have demonstrated the Talbot-Lau effect for atomic de Broglie waves in the time domain. This effect is based on Fresnel diffraction of matter waves from an incoherent source. In the experiment, de Broglie waves of atoms in a particular internal state have been manipulated and the resulting density directly imaged by resonant optical fields. These experiments allow us to probe the quantum dynamics of the atomic center of mass. We have also used this effect to create patterns in the density of the atoms with period as small as $1∕10$ of the optical wavelength, demonstrating the potential application of this technique for atom nanofabrication.

Takuya Kohno, Shinya Suzuki, Kazuko Shimizu

A coherence loss of an atomic wave scattered from the optical potential in an interferometer is observed. A Talbot-Lau atom interferometer is developed for that measurement using a laser-cooled lithium atomic beam. The long de Broglie wavelength of slow lithium atoms gives a short Talbot length and makes it possible to construct a small and stable atom interferometer.