Coherence and linewidth of a continuously pumped atom laser at finite temperature

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how finite temperature and thermal fluctuations affect the coherence and linewidth of a continuously pumped atom laser, highlighting the importance of outcoupling schemes for maintaining coherence.

Contribution

It introduces a model for the coherence of a continuously pumped atom laser at finite temperature and shows how Raman outcoupling can improve linewidth.

Findings

Thermal fluctuations reduce the atom laser's coherence.

Atomic interactions impact the output beam's coherence.

Raman outcoupling with momentum kick reduces linewidth.

Abstract

A continuous wave atom laser formed by the outcoupling of atoms from a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) potentially has a range of metrological applications. However, in order for the device to be truly continuous, a mechanism to replenish the atoms in the BEC is required. Here we calculate the temporal coherence properties of a continuously pumped atom laser beam outcoupled from a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate which is replenished from a reservoir at finite temperature. We find that the thermal fluctuations of the condensate can significantly decrease the temporal coherence of the output beam due to atomic interactions between the trapped BEC and the beam, and this can impact the metrological usefulness of the device. We demonstrate that a Raman outcoupling scheme imparting a sufficient momentum kick to the atom laser beam can lead to a significantly reduced linewidth.