| Issue |
EPL
Volume 78, Number 6, June 2007
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 60003 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | General | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/78/60003 | |
| Published online | 24 May 2007 | |
Ultra thin coherent atom beam by Stern-Gerlach interferometry
1
Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers (CNRS-UMR 7538), Université Paris 13 - Avenue J.B. Clement, 93430-Villetaneuse, France
2
Laboratoire Aimé Cotton (CNRS-UPR 3321), Université Paris-Sud - Bât. 505, 91405-Orsay cedex, France
Corresponding author: perales@galilee.univ-paris13.fr
Received:
19
January
2007
Accepted:
1
May
2007
It is demonstrated that a Stern-Gerlach interferometer including a special transverse phase shifter can generate an atomic beam of a small diameter (few tens of nm). Calculations carried out in a coherent regime confirm this point. They also show that the device is almost insensitive to velocity dispersion and that the required mechanical accuracy is quite accessible. Due to the peculiar transverse amplitude distribution (of the Lorentz type), the spreading of the generated beam profile is very small compared to that given by a circular diaphragm or a Gaussian profile of comparable initial diameter. This is a key property as regards applications, e.g. in atom lithography and surface probing.
PACS: 03.75.-b – Matter waves / 03.75.Be – Atom and neutron optics / 39.20.+q – Atom interferometry techniques
© Europhysics Letters Association, 2007
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