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Physical Review Letters

Measurement of the van der Waals Force in an Atomic Mirror

Arnaud Landragin, J.-Y. Courtois, G. Labeyrie, Nathalie Vansteenkiste, Christoph Ira Westbrook, Alain Aspect

Published Aug 19, 1996• 256 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have measured the attractive van der Waals force between a dielectric wall and an atom in its ground state. The method is a direct force measurement in which we use an evanescent wave atomic mirror to balance the van der Waals force and the inertia of the incident atom.
DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.77.1464

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After a brief introduction to the field of atom optics and to atomic mirrors, we present experimental results obtained in our group during the last two years while studying the reflection of rubidium atoms by an evanescent wave. These involve the first measurement of the van der Waals force between an atom in its ground state and a dielectric wall, as well as the demonstration of a reflection grating for atoms at normal incidence. We also consider the influence of quantum reflection and tunnelling phenomena. Further studies using the atomic mirror as a probe of the van der Waals interaction, and of very small surface roughness are briefly discussed.
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