Abstract

Coherent atom optics experiments making use of an ultra‐narrow beam of fast metastable atoms generated by metastability exchange are reported. The transverse coherence of the beam (coherence radius of 1.7 μm for He*, 1.2 μm for Ne*, 0.87 μm for Ar*) is demonstrated via the atomic diffraction by a non‐magnetic 2μm‐period reflection grating. The combination of the non‐scalar van der Waals (vdW) interaction with the Zeeman interaction generated by a static magnetic field gives rise to “vdW‐Zeeman” transitions among Zeeman sub‐levels. Exo‐energetic transitions of this type are observed with Ne*(3P2) atoms traversing a copper micro‐slit grating. They can be used as a tunable beam splitter in an inelastic Fresnel bi‐prism atom interferometer.

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