MAGNETOOPTICAL BEAM SPLITTER FOR ATOMS

We report an experimental demonstration of diffraction of He atoms fr om a magneto-optical grating. The grating was produced by the interact ion of three-level atoms with a light field of spatially varying polar ization and a magnetic field. For a light shift matched to the Zeeman shift, a two-peaked diffraction pattern was observed, corresponding to a momentum splitting of 42HBARk. The effect of changing the polarizat ions of the light field was investigated. The diffraction from the mag neto-optical grating is compared directly with the diffraction of two- level atoms from a standing light wave and it is shown that the magnet o-optical interaction leads to more efficient coupling into high order momentum states.