Theoretical study of a cold atom beam splitter

Naceur Gaaloul (1, 2) , Annick Suzor-Weiner (1) , Laurence Pruvost (3) , Mourad Telmini (2) , Eric Charron (4)

1 PPM - Laboratoire de Photophysique Moléculaire
2 LSAMA - Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Atomique, Moléculaire et Applications
3 LAC - Laboratoire Aimé Cotton
4 Approches théoriques en dynamique quantique

A theoretical model is presented for the study of the dynamics of a cold atomic cloud falling in the gravity field in the presence of two crossing dipole guides. The cloud is split between the two branches of this laser guide, and we compare experimental measurements of the splitting efficiency with semiclassical simulations. We then explore the possibilities of optimization of this beam splitter. Our numerical study also gives access to detailed information, such as the atom temperature after the splitting.

Mots clés: cold atom; beam splitter; dipole guide

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]

Naceur Gaaloul, Annick Suzor-Weiner, Laurence Pruvost, Mourad Telmini, Eric Charron. Theoretical study of a cold atom beam splitter. Physical Review A : Atomic, molecular, and optical physics [1990-2015], 2006, 74 (2), pp.023620. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevA.74.023620⟩. ⟨hal-00017414v4⟩