Imaging Spinor Bose Gasses Using Off-Axis Holography

We introduce a novel, non-invasive imaging technique based on spin-dependent off-axis holography (SOAH) for spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). Utilizing a dual reference beam strategy, this method records two orthogonal circular polarization components of a single probe beam. The circular birefringence of spin-polarized atoms induces differing complex phase shifts in the polarization components of the light, which are reconstructed from the interference patterns captured on camera. Our approach enables spin- and density-resolved imaging of both phase and amplitude information \emph{in-situ} on a sub-millisecond time scale with minimal disturbance to the condensate. We explore the technique's efficacy under various background static fields, demonstrating its sensitivity to the quantization axis of the atoms and confirming its effectiveness.
Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, uploaded to Phys. Rev. A