Diffraction of atoms by light: The near-resonant Kapitza-Dirac effect

Physics with coherent matter waves

“…The scheme used in this experiment employs a Kapitza Dirac pulse for initial splitting of the matter wave, i.e. a very short standing wave light pulse leading to three momentum states [321]. A second order Bragg pulse after some evolution time, T , redirects the split wavepackets towards each other such that they pass through each other at time 2T .…”

Quantum and classical dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a large-period optical lattice

“…Modern atom optics [1,2], in particular the diffraction of atoms by standing waves of light [3,4] provides a dramatic demonstration of the wave nature of atoms. The advent of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC), with their extremely narrow momentum distribution, has made resolving diffraction components straightforward in these systems [5].…”

Spinor Condensates and Light Scattering from Bose-Einstein Condensates

“…Quantitative studies which focused on the effect of conservative optical potentials were performed by Pritchard and collaborators [12,13]. In two different experiments, a collimated atomic beam of sodium was incident upon a standing light wave formed by a retro-reflected laser beam.…”

“…In two different experiments, a collimated atomic beam of sodium was incident upon a standing light wave formed by a retro-reflected laser beam. Two regimes of scattering were identified: Kapitza-Dirac scattering from a thin optical grating (tightly focused beams) which is non-specific in the angle between the incident atomic beam and the standing wave [12], and Bragg scattering from a thick grating (loosely focused beams) which occurs only at specific resonant angles [13]. In these atomic beam experiments, the kinetic energy of the atoms, and thus the magnitude of their momentum, is unchanged by scattering off the stationary optical field.…”