Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Physical Review A

Atom optics in the time domain

Markus Arndt, Pascal Szriftgiser, Jean Dalibard, Andrew M. Steane

Published May 1, 1996• 50 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Atom-optics experiments are presented using a time-modulated evanescent light wave as an atomic mirror in the trampoline configuration, i.e., perpendicular to the direction of the atomic free fall. This modulated mirror is used to accelerate cesium atoms, to focus their trajectories, and to apply a ``multiple lens'' to separately focus different velocity classes of atoms originating from a point source. We form images of a simple two-slit object to show the resolution of the device. The experiments are modelled by a general treatment analogous to classical ray optics. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.53.3369

Related papers

Phase Modulation of Atomic de Broglie Waves

Andrew M. Steane, Pascal Szriftgiser, Pierre Desbiolles +1 more

Cesium atoms prepared in a state of well-defined total energy have been reflected from a vibrating mirror, causing the matter waves to be phase modulated. The mirror is an evanescent light wave whose intensity is modulated in time at a frequency $\ensuremath{\nu}$ in the range 0 to 2 MHz; the atoms are reflected at normal incidence. The resulting beam consists of a ``carrier'' plus various sidebands corresponding to de Broglie waves propagating at different velocities. The precision and flexibility of this technique make it a promising tool in atom optics.

Physical Review Letters•Jun 19, 1995•198 citations

Atoms in modulated evanescent wave fields

Farhan Saif, Shinichi Watanabe

Chapter 12 describes atomic dynamics in amplitude-modulated evanescent fields making an atomic modulated trampoline under the action of gravitational potential. In the chapter we explain the quantum recurrences in various modulation regimes, acceleration and dynamical localization, leading to the important topic of nondispersive and accelerated atomic wave packets. Light force in macroscopic systems is useful for the development of quantum devices and sensors at macroscopic scales.

Institute of Physics eBooks•Dec 1, 2023•0 citations

Atomic Wave Diffraction and Interference Using Temporal Slits

Pascal Szriftgiser, David Guéry-Odelin, Markus Arndt +1 more

We measure the energy distribution of a slow Cesium atomic beam when it is chopped into a short pulse and we find results which agree well with the time-energy uncertainty principle. The chopper consists in an atomic mirror formed by a laser evanescent wave whose intensity is pulsed. We use the temporally diffracted beam to design a Young-slit-type interferometer, in which the interfering paths consist of atomic trajectories bouncing at two different times on the mirror. By changing the mirror intensity, we can scan the atomic phase difference between the two arms.

Physical Review Letters•Jul 1, 1996•250 citations

Diffraction of a Bose-Einstein condensate in the time domain

Yves Colombe, B. Mercier, Hélène Perrin +1 more

We have observed the diffraction of a Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium atoms on a vibrating mirror potential. The matter wave packet bounces back at normal incidence on a blue-detuned evanescent light field after a $3.6\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mm}$ free fall. The mirror vibrates at a frequency of $500\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{kHz}$ with an amplitude of $3\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}$. The atomic carrier and side bands are directly imaged during their ballistic expansion. The locations and the relative weights of the diffracted atomic wave packets are in very good agreement with the theoretical prediction of Henkel et al. [J. Phys. II 4, 1877 (1994)].

arXiv:quant-ph/0507276•Physical Review A•Dec 5, 2005•35 citations

Atom optics and interferometry with atomic mirrors

Markus Arndt, Pierre Desbiolles, David Guéry-Odelin +3 more

We have designed a gravitational cavity for ultra-cold atoms using an atomic mirror made from an evanescent laser wave. By a temporal variation of the evanescent wave intensity, we have realized various atom optics components such as temporal slits and phase modulators. We have also designed an atom interferometer using this cavity which proves that the coherence of the de Broglie waves can be preserved during the bounce of the atoms on the mirror.

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•May 1, 1997•0 citations

Atom optics: from basic science to applications

Alain Aspect

Atom Optics is a new branch of Atomic Physics, where one tries to act upon atoms, likewise one can act upon light (photons) in ordinary optics. The goal is therefore to reflect, focus, diffract, make interfere atoms1 .Afew years ago, this was considered as a fundamental goal, as had been the case decades ago for electron optics, or neutron optics. Indeed, it is always important to investigate the quantum behaviour of larger and larger objects, and studying the wave like behaviour of atoms has attracted a lot of attention. Moreover, atoms are objects that are coupled with the environment in a controlable way, in particular via quasi-resonant interaction with light. There is thus a hope to investigate how this coupling with the environment is relevant to the old problem of the division between the quantum world and the classical world2 ,and how it is related to the question of quantum decoherence. To keep in the domain of Atom Optics, the question of the preservation of coherence of the de Brogue waves describing the atomic motion is crucial. Another basic issue is the question of the collisions between atoms, or between an atom and a surface, when the atom is described as a matter-wave. From this point of view, the very interesting recent results in the domain of cold atoms collisions are only a part of what will probably come out, and new approaches may be fruitful. For instance, some collision effects may be considered as non-linear effects of atom optics... On the other hand, almost from the start, Atom Optics has been a domain where the question of applications has been raised. The experience of the many useful applications existing in the domain of electron and neutron optics has clearly shown the way. A first reason for expecting interesting applications to atom optics is the small value of the de Brogue wavelength, in the nanometer range or below, even at very low energies. This opens for instance the possibility of high resolution lithography, or of nanoprobes, at energies low enough to have a soft, non damaging interaction with a surface. Another important class of applications is in atomic interferometry. It can be shown that atomic interferometers (using atoms of mass Mat) are much more sensitive to inertial or gravitational effects3 than photonic interferometers (using photon of energy hw), by a ratio of the order of MatC2 / ho) . Note that this statement is true only under the condtion that the atomic and photonic interferometers under comparison have equivalent geometries, so that present day interferometers do not yet take full advantage of the 1011 factor of potential improvement. However, impressive results have already be demonstrated6. As a matter of fact, many of the papers presented in this symposium are linked to applications, either with atomic interferometers, or related to the possibility of deep focusing of an atomic beams. Most of these applications a Unite de recherche associée au CNRS can be easily understood by analogy with photon optics. However, there are also several features of atom optics that have no analogy in photon optics. The most important one is probably the possibility to increase the luminosity of an atomic beam (i.e. the flux of atoms per per unit time, surface, and solid angle) or —equivalently — to increase the atomic density in the phase space. This is possible by use of laser cooling, which is a dissipative process, and therefore is not constrained by the Liouville theorem. Another distinctive feature of atom optics —this one not particularly an advantage —is the lack of a sudden interface, that would be analogous to a glass-vacuum interface for light. By sudden interface, we mean that some characteristic parameter relevant to the propagation (the index of refraction in the case of light) changes on a scale small compared to the wavelength of the waves that propagate. In atom optics, the interfaces are usually soft, since the potentials acting on the atomic motion usually change on a scale large compared to the de Broglie wavelengths. In this overview, I intend to recall some basic principles of atom optics, and to point out some important analogies and differences with photon optics4 .Iexpect this discussion to be illustrated by the various presentations at this symposium, for which I hope to offer a framework. In addition, I will take the liberty to illustrate my presentation by some examples chosen among results obtained recently in my laboratory, on the subject of atomic mirrors. The comparison between atom optics and photon optics would of course be incomplete if I would not adress the question of the impact of Bose Einstein condensates onto Atom Optics. As many of us, I am convinced that we are assisting to a revolution as important for Atom Optics as the invention of the laser in the domain of Photon Optics, and we are lucky to have a full session on this hot subject.

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•May 1, 1997•0 citations
Atom-optics experiments are presented using a time-modulated evanescent light wave as an atomic mirror in the trampoline configuration, i.e., perpendicular to the direction of the atomic free fall. This modulated mirror is used to accelerate cesium atoms, to focus their trajectories, and to apply a ``multiple lens'' to separately focus different velocity classes of atoms originating from a point source. We form images of a simple two-slit object to show the resolution of the device. The experiments are modelled by a general treatment analogous to classical ray optics. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Cesium atoms prepared in a state of well-defined total energy have been reflected from a vibrating mirror, causing the matter waves to be phase modulated. The mirror is an evanescent light wave whose intensity is modulated in time at a frequency $\ensuremath{\nu}$ in the range 0 to 2 MHz; the atoms are reflected at normal incidence. The resulting beam consists of a ``carrier'' plus various sidebands corresponding to de Broglie waves propagating at different velocities. The precision and flexibility of this technique make it a promising tool in atom optics.
We measure the energy distribution of a slow Cesium atomic beam when it is chopped into a short pulse and we find results which agree well with the time-energy uncertainty principle. The chopper consists in an atomic mirror formed by a laser evanescent wave whose intensity is pulsed. We use the temporally diffracted beam to design a Young-slit-type interferometer, in which the interfering paths consist of atomic trajectories bouncing at two different times on the mirror. By changing the mirror intensity, we can scan the atomic phase difference between the two arms.
We have observed the diffraction of a Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium atoms on a vibrating mirror potential. The matter wave packet bounces back at normal incidence on a blue-detuned evanescent light field after a 3.6mm3.6\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mm}3.6mm free fall. The mirror vibrates at a frequency of 500kHz500\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{kHz}500kHz with an amplitude of 3nm3\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}3nm. The atomic carrier and side bands are directly imaged during their ballistic expansion. The locations and the relative weights of the diffracted atomic wave packets are in very good agreement with the theoretical prediction of Henkel et al. [J. Phys. II 4, 1877 (1994)].
Atom Optics is a new branch of Atomic Physics, where one tries to act upon atoms, likewise one can act upon light (photons) in ordinary optics. The goal is therefore to reflect, focus, diffract, make interfere atoms1 .Afew years ago, this was considered as a fundamental goal, as had been the case decades ago for electron optics, or neutron optics. Indeed, it is always important to investigate the quantum behaviour of larger and larger objects, and studying the wave like behaviour of atoms has attracted a lot of attention. Moreover, atoms are objects that are coupled with the environment in a controlable way, in particular via quasi-resonant interaction with light. There is thus a hope to investigate how this coupling with the environment is relevant to the old problem of the division between the quantum world and the classical world2 ,and how it is related to the question of quantum decoherence. To keep in the domain of Atom Optics, the question of the preservation of coherence of the de Brogue waves describing the atomic motion is crucial. Another basic issue is the question of the collisions between atoms, or between an atom and a surface, when the atom is described as a matter-wave. From this point of view, the very interesting recent results in the domain of cold atoms collisions are only a part of what will probably come out, and new approaches may be fruitful. For instance, some collision effects may be considered as non-linear effects of atom optics... On the other hand, almost from the start, Atom Optics has been a domain where the question of applications has been raised. The experience of the many useful applications existing in the domain of electron and neutron optics has clearly shown the way. A first reason for expecting interesting applications to atom optics is the small value of the de Brogue wavelength, in the nanometer range or below, even at very low energies. This opens for instance the possibility of high resolution lithography, or of nanoprobes, at energies low enough to have a soft, non damaging interaction with a surface. Another important class of applications is in atomic interferometry. It can be shown that atomic interferometers (using atoms of mass Mat) are much more sensitive to inertial or gravitational effects3 than photonic interferometers (using photon of energy hw), by a ratio of the order of MatC2 / ho) . Note that this statement is true only under the condtion that the atomic and photonic interferometers under comparison have equivalent geometries, so that present day interferometers do not yet take full advantage of the 1011 factor of potential improvement. However, impressive results have already be demonstrated6. As a matter of fact, many of the papers presented in this symposium are linked to applications, either with atomic interferometers, or related to the possibility of deep focusing of an atomic beams. Most of these applications a Unite de recherche associée au CNRS can be easily understood by analogy with photon optics. However, there are also several features of atom optics that have no analogy in photon optics. The most important one is probably the possibility to increase the luminosity of an atomic beam (i.e. the flux of atoms per per unit time, surface, and solid angle) or —equivalently — to increase the atomic density in the phase space. This is possible by use of laser cooling, which is a dissipative process, and therefore is not constrained by the Liouville theorem. Another distinctive feature of atom optics —this one not particularly an advantage —is the lack of a sudden interface, that would be analogous to a glass-vacuum interface for light. By sudden interface, we mean that some characteristic parameter relevant to the propagation (the index of refraction in the case of light) changes on a scale small compared to the wavelength of the waves that propagate. In atom optics, the interfaces are usually soft, since the potentials acting on the atomic motion usually change on a scale large compared to the de Broglie wavelengths. In this overview, I intend to recall some basic principles of atom optics, and to point out some important analogies and differences with photon optics4 .Iexpect this discussion to be illustrated by the various presentations at this symposium, for which I hope to offer a framework. In addition, I will take the liberty to illustrate my presentation by some examples chosen among results obtained recently in my laboratory, on the subject of atomic mirrors. The comparison between atom optics and photon optics would of course be incomplete if I would not adress the question of the impact of Bose Einstein condensates onto Atom Optics. As many of us, I am convinced that we are assisting to a revolution as important for Atom Optics as the invention of the laser in the domain of Photon Optics, and we are lucky to have a full session on this hot subject.