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arXiv:cond-mat/0103586 · Physical Review A

Adaptive inelastic magnetic mirror for Bose-Einstein condensates

Aidan S. Arnold, C. MacCormick, M. G. Boshier

Published Jan 30, 2002• 40 citations
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Abstract

We report the reflection and focusing of a Bose-Einstein condensate by a pulsed magnetic mirror. The mirror is adaptive, inelastic, and has extremely high optical quality. Deviations from specularity are below 1 mrad rms --- almost an order of magnitude better than other atomic mirrors. The mirror has been used to realize the atom-optical analog of a beam expander, producing an ultracold collimated fountain of matter waves. The results of these experiments are in good agreement with simple theoretical models.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.65.031601

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We report the reflection and focusing of a Bose-Einstein condensate by a pulsed magnetic mirror. The mirror is adaptive, inelastic, and has extremely high optical quality. Deviations from specularity are below 1 mrad rms --- almost an order of magnitude better than other atomic mirrors. The mirror has been used to realize the atom-optical analog of a beam expander, producing an ultracold collimated fountain of matter waves. The results of these experiments are in good agreement with simple theoretical models.
We report adjustable magnetic `bouncing' and focusing of a dilute 87^{87}87Rb Bose gas. Both the condensate production and manipulation are realised using a particularly straight-forward apparatus. The bouncing region is comprised of approximately concentric ellipsoidal magnetic equipotentials with a centre that can be adjusted vertically. We extend, and discuss the limitations of, simple Thomas-Fermi and Monte-Carlo theoretical models for the bouncing, which at present find close agreement with the condensate's evolution. Very strong focusing has been inferred and the observation of atomic matter-wave diffraction should be possible. Prospects look bright for applications in matter-wave atom-optics, due to the very smooth nature of the mirror.
In a recent experiment we studied cold rubidium atoms bouncing on a magnetic mirror made from a flexible computer disk with sinusoidal magnetization. The motion was well described by a model in which the mirror was a perfect specular reflector, but complete agreement with the data required the reflecting surface to be slightly corrugated. Here we explore the physical origins of the corrugation both theoretically and experimentally. First, we develop a theory relating the reflecting force on the atoms to the magnetization of the mirror, taking into account the finite thickness of the magnetic film. We find that if the signal on the floppy disk is not harmonic the atoms appear to have been reflected from a corrugated surface, as observed in our recent experiment. Next, we describe magnetic force microscope measurements which allow us to determine the distortion on the disk and hence to quantify its effect on the reflected atoms. We show that recording nonlinearity is indeed a major cause of the mirror roughness. We also consider other sources of roughness and identify an important effect associated with the boundaries between recorded tracks. Agreement between our experiment and theory suggests that we have identified the limiting factors in a real atom-optical element made from a floppy disk. At present the angular resolution of the mirror is approximately 35 mrad for atoms dropped from a height of 4 cm. We discuss how this can be improved to reach a level of 5 mrad or better.
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The use of off-resonant standing light waves to manipulate ultracold atoms is investigated. Previous work has illustrated that Bragg diffraction can provide efficient beam-splitting and reflection operations for atomic wave packets. The performance of these operations is characterized experimentally using Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a weak magnetic trap. Fidelities of 0.99 for beam splitting and 0.98 for reflection are observed, and splitting operations of up to third order are achieved. The dependence of the operations on light intensity and atomic velocity is measured and found to agree well with theoretical estimates.
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