Berlin 2001 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Downloads | Hilfe

PV: Plenarvorträge

PV I

PV I: Plenarvortrag

Montag, 2. April 2001, 09:30–10:15, H105

Atom Optics, from Atomic Mirrors to Atom Lasers — •Alain Aspect — Institut d’Optique, BP 147, 91403 ORSAY Cedex, France

Atom Optics tries to deal with atoms like photon optics deals with light, thanks to optical instruments. Among these instruments, the mirror is specially important, since it is used in many interferometers to redirect coherently waves, allowing one to increase the separation between arms. Curved mirrors are also key components, as in telescopes, because they are achromatic. Similarly, atomic mirrors could play an important role in atom optics, provided that they are able to preserve the coherence of the reflected atomic matter waves. I will present some experiments that have allowed us to characterize specular vs diffuse reflection in an atomic mirror, and will show how to understand these phenomenon in the framework of a matter wave description. As in photon optics, these experiments would be more accurate if one could use a coherent perfectly collimated beam of atom: we need an atom laser.

In the second part of this talk, I will explain how we can produce a quasi continuous atom laser, that can be used for atom optics experiments.