Beam quality of a non-ideal atom laser
Other Condensed Matter
2010-03-19 v3 Atomic Physics
Abstract
We study the propagation of a non-interacting atom laser distorted by the strong lensing effect of the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) from which it is outcoupled. We observe a transverse structure containing caustics that vary with the density within the residing BEC. Using WKB approximation, Fresnel-Kirchhoff integral formalism and ABCD matrices, we are able to describe analytically the atom laser propagation. This allows us to characterize the quality of the non-ideal atom laser beam by a generalized M factor defined in analogy to photon lasers. Finally we measure this quality factor for different lensing effects.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0509281,
title = {Beam quality of a non-ideal atom laser},
author = {J. -F. Riou and W. Guerin and Y. Le Coq and M. Fauquembergue and Philippe Bouyer and V. Josse and Alain Aspect},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0509281},
year = {2010}
}