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Mechanisms of matter‐wave diffraction and their application to interferometers
Author(s) -
Giese Enno
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
fortschritte der physik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.469
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1521-3978
pISSN - 0015-8208
DOI - 10.1002/prop.201500020
Subject(s) - astronomical interferometer , interferometry , optics , diffraction , physics , beam splitter , atom interferometer , interference (communication) , bragg's law , laser , computer science , telecommunications , channel (broadcasting)
Light pulses have proven to be a powerful and versatile tool to implement beam splitters and mirrors for matter waves enabling atom interferometers. However, for high‐precision measurements with such devices the specific realization is crucial and novel techniques might increase the sensitivity. To illustrate the diversity of light‐pulse beam splitting and the subtle differences between the diffraction mechanisms, we study atomic Raman, Bragg, and the new method of double Bragg diffraction in a coherent way. Moreover, we introduce a versatile formalism to determine the interference signal of a Mach‐Zehnder geometry and give an interpretation in terms of proper‐time difference. In addition, we explore the feasibility of a specular mirror for atoms, which might lead to an interferometer testing the equivalence principle.