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Atomic matter wave scanner

Hilmar Oberst·Shigenori Kasashima·Victor I. Balykin·Fujio Shimizu
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Abstract

We report on the experimental realization of an atom optical device, that allows scanning of an atomic beam. We used a time-modulated evanescent wave field above a glass surface to diffract a continuous beam of metastable Neon atoms at grazing incidence. The diffraction angles and efficiencies were controlled by the frequency and form of modulation, respectively. With an optimized shape, obtained from a numerical simulation, we were able to transfer more than 50% of the atoms into the first order beam, which we were able to move over a range of 8 mrad.

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Hilmar Oberst, Shigenori Kasashima, Victor I. Balykin, Fujio Shimizu. 2002-10-09. Atomic matter wave scanner. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.68.013606

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