Abstract

Atom optics potentially presents a number of advantages over other kinds of matter-wave optics such as electron and neutron optics, due in particular to the large atomic mass, the relative simplicity of producing high quality atomic beams, and also because of the extra degrees of freedom offered by the internal (electronic) structure of atoms. These advantages are however tempered by the fact that atoms are subject to spontaneous emission, an incoherent process that invariably competes with the coherent atom-field momentum exchange.

© 1992 IQEC