Physics with Coherent Matter Waves

TL;DR

This review covers the development and applications of coherent matter waves, especially Bose-Einstein condensates, highlighting their coherence properties, experimental techniques, and future challenges in fundamental physics and technology.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the progress in coherent matter wave research, including phase manipulation, atom lasers, and atom optics, with insights into future directions.

Findings

Advances in phase manipulation methods for matter waves

Development of atom lasers and nonlinear atom optics

Progress in interferometry and optical lattice applications

Abstract

This review discusses progress in the new field of coherent matter waves, in particular with respect to Bose-Einstein condensates. We give a short introduction to Bose-Einstein condensation and the theoretical description of the condensate wavefunction. We concentrate on the coherence properties of this new type of matter wave as a basis for fundamental physics and applications. The main part of this review treats various measurements and concepts in the physics with coherent matter waves. In particular we present phase manipulation methods, atom lasers, nonlinear atom optics, optical elements, interferometry and physics in optical lattices. We give an overview of the state of the art in the respective fields and discuss achievements and challenges for the future.