Interference of an array of atom lasers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the interference of multiple atom lasers generated from separate Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice, revealing their coherent properties through observed interference patterns.

Contribution

It reports the first observation of interference among an array of atom lasers from independent condensates, advancing understanding of coherence in atomic systems.

Findings

Interference pattern confirms coherence among atom lasers.

Measured relative de Broglie frequency of the atom lasers.

Demonstrated spatial beating of overlapping atomic beams.

Abstract

We report on the observation of interference of a series of atom lasers. A comb-like array of coherent atomic beams is generated by outcoupling atoms from distinct Bose-Einstein condensates confined in the independent sites of a mesoscopic optical lattice. The observed interference signal arises from the spatial beating of the overlapped atom laser beams, which is sampled over a vertical region corresponding to 2 ms of free fall time. The average relative de Broglie frequency of the atom lasers was measured.