We report on the experimental realization of an atom optical device, that allows scanning of an atomic beam. We used a time-modulated evanescent wave field above a glass surface to diffract a continuous beam of metastable Neon atoms at grazing incidence. The diffraction angles and efficiencies were controlled by the frequency and form of modulation, respectively. With an optimized shape, obtained from a numerical simulation, we were able to transfer more than 50% of the atoms into the first order beam, which we were able to move over a range of 8 mrad.
@article{arxiv.physics/0210036,
title = {Atomic matter wave scanner},
author = {Hilmar Oberst and Shigenori Kasashima and Victor I. Balykin and Fujio Shimizu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0210036},
year = {2016}
}