Near-field imaging of atom diffraction gratings: The atomic Talbot effect

Michael S. Chapman; Christopher R. Ekstrom; Troy D. Hammond; Jörg Schmiedmayer; Bridget E. Tannian; Stefan Wehinger; David E. Pritchard

doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.51.R14

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Near-field imaging of atom diffraction gratings: The atomic Talbot effect

Michael S. Chapman, Christopher R. Ekstrom, Troy D. Hammond, Jörg Schmiedmayer, Bridget E. Tannian, Stefan Wehinger, and David E. Pritchard

Phys. Rev. A 51, R14(R) – Published 1 January 1995

Abstract

We have demonstrated the Talbot effect, the self-imaging of a periodic structure, with atom waves. We have measured the successive recurrence of these self-images as a function of the distance from the imaged grating. This is a near-field interference effect, which has several possible applications that are discussed.

Received 4 November 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.51.R14

Authors & Affiliations

Michael S. Chapman, Christopher R. Ekstrom, and Troy D. Hammond

Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Jörg Schmiedmayer

Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Inssbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

Bridget E. Tannian