title: Coherence properties of guided-atom interferometers.
abstract: We present a detailed theoretical investigation of the coherence properties of beam splitters and Mach-Zehnder interferometers for guided neutral atoms. We show that such a setup permits coherent wave packet splitting and leads to the appearance of interference fringes for both single-mode and thermal input states, evidencing thus the robustness of the interferometer.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany. kreutzm@itp.uni-hannover.de
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kreutzmann
authors.forename: U V
authors.initials: UV
authors.lastname: Poulsen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lewenstein
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dumke
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ertmer
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Birkl
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sanpera