title: Optically guided beam splitter for propagating matter waves.
abstract: We study experimentally and theoretically a beam splitter setup for guided atomic matter waves. The matter wave is a guided atom laser that can be tuned from quasimonomode to a regime where many transverse modes are populated, and propagates in a horizontal dipole beam until it crosses another horizontal beam at 45°. We show that depending on the parameters of this X configuration, the atoms can all end up in one of the two beams (the system behaves as a perfect guide switch), or be split between the four available channels (the system behaves as a beam splitter). The splitting regime results from a chaotic scattering dynamics. The existence of these different regimes turns out to be robust against small variations of the parameters of the system. From numerical studies, we also propose a scheme that provides a robust and controlled beam splitter in two channels only.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Collisions Agrégats Réactivité, CNRS UMR 5589, IRSAMC, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 4, France.
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Gattobigio
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Couvert
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reinaudi
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Georgeot
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Guéry-Odelin