Publication
We have observed the interferometric suspension of a free-falling Bose-Einstein condensate periodically submitted to multiple-order diffraction by a vertical 1D standing wave. This scheme permits simultaneously the compensation of gravity and coherent splitting/recombination of the matter waves. It results in high-contrast interference in the number of atoms detected at constant height. For long suspension times, multiple-wave interference is revealed through a sharpening of the fringes. We characterize our atom interferometer and use it to measure the acceleration of gravity.
Olivier Martin, Karim Achouri, Andrei Kiselev
Stefano Coda, Stephan Brunner, Justin Richard Ball, Gabriele Merlo, Aylwin Iantchenko