Dual-Beam Atom Laser Driven by Spinor Dynamics

An atom laser now undergoing development simultaneously generates two pulsed beams of correlated 87Rb atoms. (An atom laser is a source of atoms in beams characterized by coherent matter waves, analogous to a conventional laser, which is a source of coherent light waves.) The pumping mechanism of this atom laser is based on spinor dynamics in a Bose-Einstein beam running-wave dipole trap that has been formed by focusing of a CO2-laser beam. By a technique that is established in the art, the trap is loaded from an ultra-high-vacuum magneto-optical trap that is, itself, loaded via a cold atomic beam from an upstream two-dimensional magneto-optical trap that resides in a rubidium-vapor cell that is differentially pumped condensate. By virtue of the angular-momentum conserving collisions that generate the two beams, the number of atoms in one beam is correlated with the number of atoms in the other beam. Such correlations are intimately linked to entanglement and squeezing in atomic ensembles, and atom lasers like this one could be used in exploring related aspects of Bose-Einstein condensates, and as components of future sensors relying on atom interferometry.