Abstract

We investigate a non-destructive homodyne measurement of atomic condensates using off-resonant optical laser beam that interacts with atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The interaction between laser beam and the atomic BEC creates entangled states of atom and light that are destroyed in a homodyne detection of light. The destruction of the entangled states causes back-action on the atomic states. We derive expression for the measurement operator on the atomic states due to the photon measurement. We characterize the back-action by calculating quantities such as the Q-function and observe the variation of the measured state with the strength of the light-BEC interaction.

© 2013 Optical Society of America