4 research outputs found
Theoretical analysis of a single and double reflection atom interferometer in a weakly-confining magnetic trap
The operation of a BEC based atom interferometer, where the atoms are held in
a weakly-confining magnetic trap and manipulated with counter-propagating laser
beams, is analyzed. A simple analytic model is developed to describe the
dynamics of the interferometer. It is used to find the regions of parameter
space with high and low contrast of the interference fringes for both single
and double reflection interferometers. We demonstrate that for a double
reflection interferometer the coherence time can be increased by shifting the
recombination time. The theory is compared with recent experimental
realizations of these interferometers.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure