Atom Wave Interferometer
Abstract
The biggest accomplishment during the current grant period was the demonstration of a three grating interferometer for atoms--the first true atom interferometer reported in the literature. Our interferometer consists of three equally spaced transmission diffraction gratings which function respectively much like the beam splitter, mirrors, and beam combiner in a diamond shaped Mach-Zender interferometer. This is a well known design whose general advantages have been eloquently extolled and which has been demonstrated with light, neutrons and x rays. For atoms it can be realized either with matter (amplitude transmission) gratings or light (phase) gratings, but we elected to pursue the use of the more robust matter gratings. Our matter grating interferometer differs from most optical and neutron interferometers in that the interference is detected as a spatial variation of particle density at the third grating.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 11, 1991
- Accession Number
- ADA243482
Entities
People
- David E. Pritchard
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology