Paired atom laser beams created via four-wave mixing

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel method to generate correlated paired atom laser beams from a Bose-Einstein condensate using four-wave mixing, with experimental and numerical evidence supporting the process.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to produce paired atom laser beams via four-wave mixing in metastable helium, showing experimental realization and theoretical validation.

Findings

Paired atom laser beams are successfully created via four-wave mixing.

Experimental results match numerical simulations, confirming the process.

The scattered beams are well separated and likely correlated.

Abstract

A method to create paired atom laser beams from a metastable helium atom laser via four-wave mixing is demonstrated. Radio frequency outcoupling is used to extract atoms from a Bose Einstein condensate near the center of the condensate and initiate scattering between trapped and untrapped atoms. The unequal strengths of the interactions for different internal states allows an energy-momentum resonance which leads to the creation of pairs of atoms scattered from the zero-velocity condensate. The resulting scattered beams are well separated from the main atom laser in the 2-dimensional transverse atom laser profile. Numerical simulations of the system are in good agreement with the observed atom laser spatial profiles, and indicate that the scattered beams are generated by a four-wave mixing process, suggesting that the beams are correlated.