Spatially inhomogeneous phase evolution of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate

R. P. Anderson, C. Ticknor, A. I. Sidorov, and B. V. Hall
Phys. Rev. A 80, 023603 – Published 5 August 2009

Abstract

We investigate the spatially dependent relative phase evolution of an elongated two-component Bose-Einstein condensate. The pseudospin-12 system is comprised of the |F=1,mF=1 and |F=2,mF=+1 hyperfine ground states of R87b, which we magnetically trap and interrogate with radio-frequency and microwave fields. We probe the relative phase evolution with Ramsey interferometry and observe a temporal decay of the interferometric contrast well described by a mean-field formalism. Inhomogeneity of the collective relative phase dominates the loss of interferometric contrast, rather than decoherence or phase diffusion. We demonstrate a technique to simultaneously image each state, yielding subpercent variations in the measured relative number while preserving the spatial mode of each component. In addition, we propose a spatially sensitive interferometric technique to image the relative phase.

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  • Received 30 April 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.80.023603

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

R. P. Anderson, C. Ticknor, A. I. Sidorov, and B. V. Hall*

  • ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics and Centre for Atom Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia

  • *brhall@swin.edu.au

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Vol. 80, Iss. 2 — August 2009

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