Photon recoil momentum in a Bose-Einstein condensate of a dilute gas

Abstract

We develop a "minimal" microscopic model to describe a two-pulse-Ramsay-interferometer-based scheme of measurement of the photon recoil momentum in a Bose-Einstein condensate of a dilute gas [Campbell et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 170403 (2005)]. We exploit the truncated coupled Maxwell-Schroedinger equations to elaborate the problem. Our approach provides a theoretical tool to reproduce essential features of the experimental results. Additionally, we enable to calculate the quantum-mechanical mean value of the recoil momentum and its statistical distribution that provides a detailed information about the recoil event.

6 pages, 4 figures

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• Bloch oscillations of ultracold atoms: a tool for a metrological determination of $h/m_{Rb}$
• Spatial effects in superradiant Rayleigh scattering from Bose-Einstein condensates
• Spectroscopy of Strong-Pulse Superradiance in a Bose-Einstein condensate