Coherence Properties of Guided-Atom Interferometers
arXiv:cond-mat/0309227 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.163201
Abstract
We present a detailed investigation of the coherence properties of beam splitters and Mach-Zehnder interferometers for guided atoms. It is demonstrated that such a setup permits coherent wave packet splitting and leads to the appearance of interference fringes. We study single-mode and thermal input states and show that even for thermal input states interference fringes can be clearly observed, thus demonstrating the multimode operation and the robustness of the interferometer.
4 pages, 4 figures