Abstract

Two recent experiments demonstrating novel atomic lenses—one using a free standing Fresnel zone plate and the other using an optical standing wave with large (40 μm) period—will be discussed. In addition, an experiment demonstrating the splitting of an atomic beam by the optical Stern–Gerlach effect will be described. In this effect, a beam of (two-level) atoms is coherently split into two paths by an exactly resonant optical field gradient, each path containing atoms in one of the two dressed states. The field gradient was derived from a large period standing wave, produced by bouncing a laser beam from a glass surface at grazing incidence. The experiments were carried out with metastable He atoms interacting through the 2³S₁to 2³P₂ transition with an optical field at 1.083 μm. The interaction times were significantly less than the 2³P natural lifetime of 100 ns, so spontaneous emission played no role during the interaction.

© 1992 Optical Society of America