An atomic Fabry-Perot interferometer using a pulsed interacting Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

We numerically demonstrate atomic Fabry–Perot resonances for a pulsed interacting Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) source transmitting through double Gaussian barriers. These resonances are observable for an experimentally-feasible parameter choice, which we determined using a previouslydeveloped analytical model for a plane matter-wave incident on a double rectangular barrier system. Through numerical simulations using the non-polynomial Schödinger equation—an efective onedimensional Gross–Pitaevskii equation—we investigate the efect of atom number, scattering length, and BEC momentum width on the resonant transmission peaks. For 85Rb atomic sources with the current experimentally-achievable momentum width of 0.02 k0 [k0 = 2π/(780 nm)], we show that reasonably high contrast Fabry–Perot resonant transmission peaks can be observed using (a) noninteracting BECs, (b) interacting BECs of 5 × 104 atoms with s-wave scattering lengths as = ±0.1a0 (a0 is the Bohr radius), and (c) interacting BECs of 103 atoms with as = ±1.0a0. Our theoretical investigation impacts any future experimental realization of an atomic Fabry–Perot interferometer with an ultracold atomic source.