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A waveguide atom beamsplitter for laser-cooled neutral atoms

Dirk Mueller·Eric A. Cornell·Marco Prevedelli·Peter D. D. Schwindt·Dana Z. Anderson
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Abstract

A laser-cooled neutral-atom beam from a low-velocity intense source is split into two beams while guided by a magnetic-field potential. We generate our multimode-beamsplitter potential with two current-carrying wires on a glass substrate combined with an external transverse bias field. The atoms bend around several curves over a $10$-cm distance. A maximum integrated flux of $1.5\cdot10^{5} \mathrm{atoms/s}$ is achieved with a current density of $5\cdot10^{4} \mathrm{Ampere/cm^{2}}$ in the 100-$\mathrm{μm}$ diameter wires. The initial beam can be split into two beams with a 50/50 splitting ratio.

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Dirk Mueller, Eric A. Cornell, Marco Prevedelli, Peter D. D. Schwindt, Dana Z. Anderson. 2000-03-28. A waveguide atom beamsplitter for laser-cooled neutral atoms. https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.25.001382

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