ATOMIC BEAMSPLITTER - REFLECTION AND TRANSMISSION BY A LASER-BEAM

An atomic beam which is incident on a laser beam can be reflected or t ransmitted depending on the choice of atomic and laser beam parameters . We show that quantum reflection and tunnelling by atoms through a la ser beam is possible in principle and develop a novel scheme for an at omic beamsplitter which is based on quantum reflection and tunnelling. We compare this scheme to other proposals for atomic beamsplitters.