title: The onset of matter-wave amplification in a superradiant Bose-Einstein condensate.
abstract: The interaction of short and strong laser pulses with an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate is found to generate patterns of recoiling atoms that are different from those seen in previous light-scattering experiments. This phenomenon can only be explained by optical stimulation, showing that the previous description of superradiance as atomic stimulation is incomplete and that matter-wave amplification in Bose-Einstein condensates is suppressed at short times. Our experiments clarify the nature of bosonic stimulation in the four-wave mixing of light and atoms.
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, Research Laboratory of Electronics and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. schneble@mit.edu
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schneble
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Torii
authors.forename: Micah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boyd
authors.forename: Erik W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Streed
authors.forename: David E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Pritchard
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ketterle