Phase-coherent amplification of matter waves.

Kozuma, M; Suzuki, Y; Torii, Y; Sugiura, T; Kuga, T; Hagley, EW; Deng, L · Science · 1999

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Phase-coherent matter-wave amplification was demonstrated using Bose- Einstein-condensed rubidium-87 atoms. A small seed matter wave was created with coherent optical Bragg diffraction. Amplification of this seed matter wave was achieved by using the initial condensate as a gain medium through the superradiance effect. The coherence properties of the amplified matter wave, studied with a matter-wave interferometer, were shown to be locked to those of the initial seed wave. The active matter-wave device demonstrated here has great potential in the fields of atom optics, atom lithography, and precision measurements.