Sub-Poissonian number differences in four-wave mixing of matter waves

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

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

We demonstrate sub-Poissonian number differences 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-Poissonian noise fluctuations whereas that of nonopposing 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]; Optique [physics.optics]

Jean-Christophe Jaskula, Marie Bonneau, Guthrie B. Partridge, Valentina Krachmalnicoff, Piotr Deuar, et al.. Sub-Poissonian number differences in four-wave mixing of matter waves. Physical Review Letters, 2010, 105 (19), pp.190402. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.190402⟩. ⟨hal-00508357v2⟩