We have demonstrated a detection scheme for atom laser beams that allows for a continuous measurement of the atom density and readout of the data in real-time. The atoms in the atom laser beam are transferred locally from the lower to the upper hyperfine ground state of 87Rb by coherent coupling and are subsequently detected by an absorption measurement. The detection is non-destructive to the Bose-Einstein condensate in the magnetic trap and the atom laser beam remains unaffected outside the detection region.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0109054,
title = {Continuous detection of an atom laser beam},
author = {Michael Köhl and Theodor W. Hänsch and Tilman Esslinger},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0109054},
year = {2009}
}