Abstract
We report on an investigation of the beam profile of an atom laser extracted from a magnetically trapped Bose-Einstein condensate. The transverse momentum distribution is magnified by a curved mirror for matter waves and a momentum resolution of of a photon recoil is obtained. We find the transverse momentum distribution to be determined by the mean-field potential of the residing condensate, which leads to a nonsmooth transverse density distribution. Our experimental data are compared with a full three-dimensional simulation of the output coupling process and we find good agreement.
- Received 31 August 2005
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.72.063618
©2005 American Physical Society