2008/06/30 by R. G. Dall, L. J. Byron, A. G. Truscott +4 · 42 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Atom (system on chip) #Atom laser #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Helium #Laser #Metastability #Mixing (physics) #Optics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Resonance (particle physics) #Scattering #Transverse plane #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.79.011601
published in Physical Review A 79(1) (American Physical Society) · 5 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2008/09/25 · openalex publication_date 2009/01/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A method to create paired-atom laser beams from a metastable helium atom laser via four-wave mixing is demonstrated. Radio-frequency outcoupling is used to extract atoms from a Bose-Einstein condensate near the center of the condensate and initiate scattering between trapped and untrapped atoms. The unequal strengths of the interactions for different internal states allows an energy-momentum resonance which leads to the creation of pairs of atoms scattered from the zero-velocity condensate. The resulting scattered beams are well separated from the main atom laser in the two-dimensional transverse atom laser profile. Numerical simulations of the system are in good agreement with the observed atom laser spatial profiles and indicate that the scattered beams are generated by a four-wave mixing process, suggesting that the beams are correlated.