title: Correlations and counting statistics of an atom laser.
abstract: We demonstrate time-resolved counting of single atoms extracted from a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb atoms. The atoms are detected with a high-finesse optical cavity and single atom transits are identified. An atom laser beam is formed by continuously output coupling atoms from the Bose-Einstein condensate. We investigate the full counting statistics of this beam and measure its second order correlation function g((2))(tau) in a Hanbury Brown-Twiss type experiment. For the monoenergetic atom laser we observe a constant correlation function g((2))(tau)=1.00 +/- 0.01 and an atom number distribution close to a Poissonian statistics. A pseudothermal atomic beam shows a bunching behavior and a Bose distributed counting statistics.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, Hönggerberg, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Anton
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ottl
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ritter
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Köhl
authors.forename: Tilman
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Esslinger