Eur. Phys. J. D 35, 111-118 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2005-00212-8

Time domain de Broglie wave interferometry along a magnetic guide

¹ Department of Physics and Center for Ultra Cold atoms, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
² Division of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

Corresponding author: ^a saijunwu@fas.harvard.edu

Received: 16 March 2005
Revised: 1 June 2005
Published online: 2 August 2005

Abstract

Time domain de Broglie wave interferometry [Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 784 (1997)] is applied to Rb⁸⁷ atoms in a magnetic guide. A standing wave light field is carefully aligned along the guiding direction of the magnetic trapping potential from a soft-ferromagnetic 4-foil structure. A sequence of two standing wave pulses is applied to the magnetically trapped atoms. The backscattered light at the atomic density grating revival time is collected and detected via a heterodyning technique. In addition to the observed recoil oscillations that fit the interferometer theory for atoms in free space, we observe a decay of the interferometer contrast on a millisecond time scale with unexpected millisecond-scale oscillations. We find that the oscillating decay is explained by a residual variation of the linear trapping potential along the standing wave direction.