Measurement of the Coherence of a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Published

October 1, 1999

Author(s)

Edward W. Hagley, Lu Deng, M M. Kozuma, M Trippenbach, Y B. Band, M Edwards, M R. Doery, Paul S. Julienne, Kristian Helmerson, S L. Rolston, William D. Phillips

Abstract

We study the coherence properties of a Bose-Einstein condensates using an interference technique. Two 100 ns optical standing wave pulses are applied to a condensate with a variable time delay between them. Each standing wave phase grating makes small copies of the condensate displaced in a momentum space. The quantum mechanical amplitudes of each copy interfere, depending on {Δ}t and on spatial phase variations across the condensate. We find that the behavior of a trapped BEC is consistent with a uniform spatial phase whereas a released BEC exhibits large phase variations across the condensate.

Citation

Physical Review Letters

Volume

83

Issue

No. 16

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Bose-Einstein condensation, coherence length, diffraction, spatial coherence

Citation

Hagley, E. , Deng, L. , Kozuma, M. , Trippenbach, M. , Band, Y. , Edwards, M. , Doery, M. , Julienne, P. , Helmerson, K. , Rolston, S. and Phillips, W. (1999), Measurement of the Coherence of a Bose-Einstein Condensate, Physical Review Letters (Accessed October 9, 2025)