Abstract
Recent experiments achieving Bose condensation of weakly-interacting trapped atoms [1] have shown that statistically, Bose atoms behave identically to photons. The next step could be to create an atom laser [2], In such a device, the field describing the atoms in the ground mode of the trap would have a well-defined intensity (number of atoms) and a well-defined phase. Unlike an optical laser, the absolute phase of an atom laser is unobservable, but its rate of diffusion can be measured by time-delayed interferometry. A well-defined phase we define as one which remains steady over a time long compared to the lifetime T. of the mode due to damping. Ideally these damping processes would produce an output beam of atoms. In that case the rate of phase diffusion Γ would manifest as the spectral width, or energy spread Af-Pl Γ of the output beam.
© 1996 Optical Society of America
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