Beam Splitter for Guided Atoms

Donatella Cassettari; Björn Hessmo; Ron Folman; Thomas Maier; Jörg Schmiedmayer

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.5483

Beam Splitter for Guided Atoms

Donatella Cassettari, Björn Hessmo, Ron Folman, Thomas Maier, and Jörg Schmiedmayer

Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 5483 – Published 25 December 2000

Abstract

We have designed and experimentally studied a simple beam splitter for guided atoms realized with a current carrying Y-shaped wire nanofabricated on a surface (atom chip). Such a Y-configuration beam splitter has many advantages compared to conventional designs based on tunneling, especially that it will enable robust beam splitting. This and other similar designs can be integrated into more sophisticated surface-mounted atom optical devices at the mesoscopic scale.

Received 30 March 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.5483

Authors & Affiliations

Donatella Cassettari¹, Björn Hessmo^1,3, Ron Folman^1,2, Thomas Maier⁴, and Jörg Schmiedmayer^1,2

¹Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
²Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
³Department of Quantum Chemistry, Uppsala University, S-75120 Uppsala, Sweden
⁴Institut für Festkörperelektronik, Floragasse 7, A-1040 Wien, Austria