Filtered Talbot lens: Producing lambda/2n-periodic atomic patterns with standing-wave fields having period lambda - art. no. 033610

We propose a scheme to create high-contrast, periodic atom density distribu tions having period lambda/2n using the Talbot effect, where lambda is the wavelength of the optical fields that scatter the atoms and n is a positive integer. This filtered Talbot lens is comprised of two standing-wave optic al fields. An atomic beam propagates perpendicular to the fields. The first field, which is far detuned from the atomic transition frequency, acts as an array of lenses that focuses the atoms. The second field, positioned at the atom optical focus of the first, is resonant with the atomic transition frequency and acts as an amplitude mask, leaving unperturbed only those at oms that pass through its nodes. At distances following the interaction wit h the second held that are equal to an integral fraction of the Talbot leng th, atomic density gratings having period lambda/2n are formed.