Europhysics Letters (EPL)

A reflection grating for atoms at normal incidence

Arnaud Landragin, Laurent Cognet, G. Horváth, Christoph Ira Westbrook, Nathalie Westbrook, Alain Aspect

Published Sep 1, 1997• 20 citations

Abstract

We have observed efficient atomic diffraction at normal incidence on an evanescent standing wave with a very weak spatial modulation. A modulation as small as 1.5% causes 66% of the atoms to be diffracted into the orders ±1. The measured diffraction efficiencies agree quantitatively with a scalar treatment of diffraction in the thin phase grating approximation.

DOI: 10.1209/epl/i1997-00381-x

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