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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 99 » Issue 24
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 240406 (2007) [4 pages]

Matter-Wave Interferometry with Phase Fluctuating Bose-Einstein Condensates

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G.-B. Jo, J.-H. Choi, C. A. Christensen, Y.-R. Lee, T. A. Pasquini, W. Ketterle, and D. E. Pritchard*
MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

Received 26 June 2007; published 14 December 2007

Elongated Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) exhibit strong spatial phase fluctuations even well below the BEC transition temperature. We demonstrate that atom interferometers using such condensates are robust against phase fluctuations; i.e., the relative phase of the split condensate is reproducible despite axial phase fluctuations. However, larger phase fluctuations limit the coherence time, especially in the presence of some asymmetries in the two wells of the interferometer.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.240406
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.240406
PACS:
03.75.Dg, 03.75.Lm, 39.20.+q

*http://cua.mit.edu/ketterle_group/

 
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