Relative number squeezing in four-wave mixing of matter waves

Jean-Christophe Jaskula (1) , Marie Bonneau (2) , Guthrie B. Partridge (2) , Valentina Krachmalnicoff (1) , Piotr Deuar (3) , Karen V. Kheruntsyan (4) , Alain Aspect (1) , Denis Boiron (2) , Christoph I Westbrook (1)

1 laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Optique atomique
2 LCFIO - Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique
3 Institut of Physics
4 ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR QUANTUM-ATOM OPTICS - ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics

We report the demonstration of relative number squeezing in four-wave mixing of Bose-Einstein condensates of metastable helium. The collision between two Bose-Einstein condensates produces a scattering halo populated by pairs of atoms of opposing velocities, which we divide into several symmetric zones. We show that the atom number difference for opposing zones has sub-poissonnian noise fluctuations whereas that of non-opposing zones is well described by shot noise. The atom pairs produced in a dual number state are well adapted to sub shot-noise interferometry and studies of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-type nonlocality tests.

Mots clés: quantum atom optics; atom correlations; Bose-Einstein condensation

Domaines: Gaz Quantiques [cond-mat.quant-gas]

Jean-Christophe Jaskula, Marie Bonneau, Guthrie B. Partridge, Valentina Krachmalnicoff, Piotr Deuar, et al.. Relative number squeezing in four-wave mixing of matter waves. 2010. ⟨hal-00508357v1⟩