Observing the profile of an atom laser beam

Abstract

We report on an investigation of the beam profile of an atom laser extracted from a magnetically trapped Rb-87 Bose-Einstein condensate. The transverse momentum distribution is magnified by a curved mirror for matter waves and a momentum resolution of 1/60 of a photon recoil is obtained. We find the transverse momentum distribution to be determined by the mean-field potential of the residing condensate, which leads to a nonsmooth transverse density distribution. Our experimental data are compared with a full three-dimensional simulation of the output coupling process and we find good agreement.