Coherence length of an elongated condensate

M. Hugbart; J. A. Retter; F. Gerbier; A. F. Varón; S. Richard; J. H. Thywissen; D. Clément; P. Bouyer; A. Aspect

doi:10.1140/epjd/e2005-00056-2

2022 Impact factor 1.8

Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics

Eur. Phys. J. D 35, 155-163 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2005-00056-2

A study by matter-wave interferometry

M. Hugbart¹^a, J. A. Retter¹, F. Gerbier², A. F. Varón¹, S. Richard³, J. H. Thywissen⁴, D. Clément¹, P. Bouyer¹ and A. Aspect¹

¹ Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique, UMR8501 du CNRS, 91403 Orsay Cedex, France
² Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Staudingerweg 7, 55099 Mainz, Germany
³ THALES Research & Technology, 91404 Orsay Cedex, France
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 Saint George St, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A7 Canada

Corresponding author: ^a mathilde.hugbart@iota.u-psud.fr

Received: 13 January 2005
Revised: 5 March 2005
Published online: 3 May 2005

Abstract

We measure the spatial correlation function of Bose-Einstein condensates in the cross-over region between phase-coherent and strongly phase-fluctuating condensates. We observe the continuous path from a Gaussian-like shape to an exponential-like shape characteristic of one-dimensional phase-fluctuations. The width of the spatial correlation function as a function of the temperature shows that the condensate coherence length undergoes no sharp transition between these two regimes.

PACS: 03.75.Hh – Static properties of condensates; thermodynamical, statistical and structural properties / 03.75.Dg – Atom and neutron interferometry / 39.20.+q – Atom interferometry techniques

© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2005