COHERENT TRANSFER OF PHOTON MOMENTUM BY ADIABATIC FOLLOWING IN A DARKSTATE

We demonstrate a new technique for the mechanical manipulation of atom s with light that may be used to deflect or split an atomic beam. This technique depends on the existence of an internal superposition state of the atom that is 'dark' to resonant excitation by a particular lig ht field. An atom in a dark state may adiabatically follow a slowly va rying light field in such a way that both the internal state and the a tom's momentum are changed. Because the dark state never absorbs or fl uoresces, the atomic coherence, necessary for atom interferometry, is preserved. We use laser-cooled Cs atoms to demonstrate the transfer of 8 photon momenta from the slowly varying laser field to the atom.