A quantum trampoline for ultra-cold atoms

Martin Robert-De-Saint-Vincent (1) , Jean-Philippe Brantut (1) , Christian J. Bordé (2, 3) , Alain Aspect (1) , Thomas Bourdel (1) , Philippe Bouyer (1)

1 laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Optique atomique
2 LPL - Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers
3 SYRTE - Systèmes de Référence Temps Espace

We have observed the interferometric suspension of a free-falling Bose-Einstein condensate periodically submitted to multiple-order diffraction by a vertical 1D standing wave. The various diffracted matter waves recombine coherently, resulting in high contrast interference in the number of atoms detected at constant height. For long suspension times, multiple-wave interference is revealed through a sharpening of the fringes. We use this scheme to measure the acceleration of gravity.

Domaines: Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]; Optique [physics.optics]

Martin Robert-De-Saint-Vincent, Jean-Philippe Brantut, Christian J. Bordé, Alain Aspect, Thomas Bourdel, et al.. A quantum trampoline for ultra-cold atoms. EPL - Europhysics Letters, 2010, 89 (1), pp.10002. ⟨10.1209/0295-5075/89/10002⟩. ⟨hal-00429025⟩