title: Observation of Interference Between Two Bose Condensates
abstract: Interference between two freely expanding Bose-Einstein condensates has been observed. Two condensates separated by approximately 40 micrometers were created by evaporatively cooling sodium atoms in a double-well potential formed by magnetic and optical forces. High-contrast matter-wave interference fringes with a period of approximately 15 micrometers were observed after switching off the potential and letting the condensates expand for 40 milliseconds and overlap. This demonstrates that Bose condensed atoms are "laser-like"; that is, they are coherent and show long-range correlations. These results have direct implications for the atom laser and the Josephson effect for atoms.
authors.affiliation: The authors are in the Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Townsend
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miesner
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Durfee
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Kurn
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ketterle