Atom interferometers

Summary form only given.Atom interferometers have opened up new areas of fundamental and applied research. As well known from photon optics, multiple-beam interferometers offer an increased sensitivity on the relative phases between interfering waves. Very recently, first atomic multiple-beam interferometers were realized. These concepts are based on an atomic beam that is spatially split into coherent partial de Broglie waves, where the number of interfering waves is determined by the internal atomic multi-level scheme. We report on time-domain atomic interferometry within a two-level system.