Observation of Interference Between Two Bose Condensates
- 31 January 1997
- journal article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 275 (5300), 637-641
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.275.5300.637
Abstract
Interference between two freely expanding Bose-Einstein condensates has been observed. Two condensates separated by ∼40 micrometers were created by evaporatively cooling sodium atoms in a double-well potential formed by magnetic and optical forces. High-contrast matter-wave interference fringes with a period of ∼15 micrometers were observed after switching off the potential and letting the condensates expand for 40 milliseconds and overlap. This demonstrates that Bose condensed atoms are “laser-like”; that is, they are coherent and show long-range correlations. These results have direct implications for the atom laser and the Josephson effect for atoms.Keywords
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