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Optics Letters

High-order Talbot fringes for atomic matter waves

S. Nowak, Christian Kurtsiefer, Tilman Pfau, Christian Dávid

Published Sep 15, 1997• 97 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We observe the interference of de Broglie waves in the diffraction near field of a microfabricated grating. The reduction of the grating period by self-imaging of second to seventh order is spatially resolved. We investigate the dependence of this effect on the de Broglie wavelength by a time-to-flight technique.
DOI
10.1364/ol.22.001430

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Summary form only given.Recent developments in atom optics have led to different approaches to lithographic techniques with neutral atoms. One of these is the use of diffraction from free-standing masks, which is sometimes called atom holography. There, narrow structures arise due to matter-wave interference in the Fresnel regime. In the presented experiment, we demonstrate that the wave nature of atoms can be used to produce periodic structures with small periodicities. We used the Talbot effect in the Fresnel diffraction regime behind a microfabricated transmission grating. The Talbot effect is the self-imaging of a grating of periodicity d illuminated with plane coherent waves.
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∕101∕101∕10 of the optical wavelength, demonstrating the potential application of this technique for atom nanofabrication.
We have demonstrated direct imaging of interference fringes of total atomic density with periods $\ensuremath{\lambda}∕4$ and $\ensuremath{\lambda}∕2$ for optical wavelength $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ that have been produced in a de Broglie wave atom interferometer. The imaging was done by means of an ``optical mask'' technique, which allowed us to observe subwavelength periodic patterns with a resolution of up to $\ensuremath{\lambda}∕16$. In addition, the dependence of the fringe pattern on the recoil phase and pulse area reveals quantum dynamics in the atomic center-of-mass motion. The behavior of the fringe patterns near the interference times distinguishes the effects of phase gratings from those of amplitude gratings.
Although interferometry's earliest and most familiar use is with photons, the discovery of matter-wave (deBroglie-wave) interference for electrons demanded the development of quantum mechanics. Since then, matter-wave interferometry has been performed with neutrons, Cooper electron-pairs, and most recently, with whole atoms and diatomic molecules. This talk describes our recent high-flux atom interferometry experiments using the generalized Talbot-vonLau effect. Our interferometer consists of a sequence of three planar vacuum-slit diffraction gratings, microfabricated from silicon nitride membranes. DeBroglie-wave interference fringes are sensed by measuring the transmission of potassium atoms on a hot- wire as a function of grating relative position. Different spatial Fourier components (up to sixth) in the diffraction pattern are resonant in the interferometer at different atomic velocities (i.e., at different wavelengths). When a laser cooled slow atomic beam is incident, various different diffraction patterns are observed as a function of atomic velocity. In an alternative `Heisenberg Microscope' configuration an incident thermal beam produces a velocity average over different fringe Fourier components. AC modulated weak laser light passing through the interferometer interacts selectively with atoms at a specific velocity. The associated fringe pattern is then ac modulated and revealed by its selective destruction.