@article{2009-gadway-schneble-opt-exp-v17-p19173, Abstract = {

We study Kapitza-Dirac diffraction of a Bose-Einstein condensate from a standing light wave for a square pulse with variable pulse length but constant pulse area. We find that for sufficiently weak pulses, the usual analytical short-pulse prediction for the Raman-Nath regime continues to hold for longer times, albeit with a reduction of the apparent modulation depth of the standing wave. We quantitatively relate this effect to the Fourier width of the pulse, and draw analogies to the Rabi dynamics of a coupled two-state system. Our findings, combined with numerical modeling for stronger pulses, are of practical interest for the calibration of optical lattices in ultracold atomic systems.

}, Author = {Gadway, B. AND Pertot, D. AND Reimann, R. AND Cohen, M. G. AND Schneble, D.}, Journal = {Optics Express}, Pages = {19173}, Title = {{Analysis of Kapitza-Dirac diffraction patterns beyond the Raman-Nath regime}}, Volume = {17}, Year = {2009} }