title: Does matter wave amplification work for fermions?
abstract: We discuss the relationship between bosonic stimulation, density fluctuations, and matter wave gratings. It is shown that enhanced stimulated scattering, matter wave amplification, and atomic four-wave mixing do not require macroscopic occupation of a single quantum state. These processes are in principle possible for fermionic or nondegenerate samples, if they are prepared in a cooperative state. In practice, there are limitations due to short coherence times.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ketterle
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Inouye