Quasicontinuous horizontally guided atom laser: coupling spectrum and flux limits

Alain Bernard (1) , William Guerin (1) , Juliette Billy (1) , Fred Jendrzejewski (1) , Patrick Cheinet (1) , Alain Aspect (1) , Vincent Josse (1) , Philippe Bouyer (2, 1)

1 laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Optique atomique
2 lp2n-02,lp2n-11

We study in detail the flux properties of a radiofrequency outcoupled horizontally guided atom laser, following the scheme demonstrated in [Guerin W et al. 2006 Phys. Rev. Lett. 97 200402]. Both the outcoupling spectrum (flux of the atom laser versus rf frequency of the outcoupler) and the flux limitations imposed to operate in the quasicontinuous regime are investigated. These aspects are studied using a quasi-1D model, whose predictions are shown to be in fair agreement with the experimental observations. This work allows us to identify the operating range of the guided atom laser and to confirm its good promises in view of studying quantum transport phenomena.

Domains: Quantum Gases [cond-mat.quant-gas]

Alain Bernard, William Guerin, Juliette Billy, Fred Jendrzejewski, Patrick Cheinet, et al.. Quasicontinuous horizontally guided atom laser: coupling spectrum and flux limits. New Journal of Physics, 2011, 13, pp.065015. ⟨10.1088/1367-2630/13/6/065015⟩. ⟨hal-00545800⟩