Magnetic whispering-gallery mirror for atoms - art. no. 053405

Videotape with a sinusoidal magnetization of 31 mum wavelength is used to r eflect Cs atoms with unit reflectivity in a 75 m/s atomic beam. The atoms s erve as a probe, allowing us to measure the magnetic field at the surface. A technique is presented for mounting the videotape so that its surface can be curved to a specific shape or made flexible. We show that such a reflec tor provides high-quality grazing-incidence atom optics and we demonstrate deflections as large as 23 degrees in a whispering-gallery geometry.