Atom-atom correlations in spontaneous four wave mixing of two colliding Bose-Einstein Condensates

A. Perrin (1) , H. Chang (1) , Valentina Krachmalnicoff (2) , M. Schellekens (1) , D. Boiron (1) , Alain Aspect (2) , Christoph I Westbrook (2)

1 LCFIO - Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique
2 laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Optique atomique

We have used a position sensitive, single atom detector to observe atom scattering during the collision of two Bose-Einstein condensates. The process can also be thought of as spontaneous, degenerate four wave mixing of deBroglie waves. The observed two-particle correlation function shows a clear peak corresponding to the production of back to back atom pairs. The correlation function also exhibits a peak corresponding to pairs of atoms emitted in the same direction, the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect. Our experiment is in the regime of well separated atom pairs, opening the route to the study of quantum atom optics effects with individual entangled pairs.

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]; Autre [cond-mat.other]

A. Perrin, H. Chang, Valentina Krachmalnicoff, M. Schellekens, D. Boiron, et al.. Atom-atom correlations in spontaneous four wave mixing of two colliding Bose-Einstein Condensates. 2007. ⟨hal-00142991v1⟩