Designing Bose-Einstein condensate interferometers

Summary form only given. In a recent experiment, performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a Mach-Zender type matter-wave interferometer was demonstrated using a sequence of laser pulses applied to a gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate. Matter-wave interferometers are essential tools for probing optically manipulated Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and the use of a sequence of laser pulses should enable experimenters to implement a variety of interferometer types tailored for particular applications.