Cold atom beam splitter realized with two crossing dipole guides.

Cold rubidium atoms, coupled and guided in a vertical laser beam by the dipole force, have been split into two atomic beams, by using a second time-dependent laser beam crossing the vertical one at a 0.12 rad angle. Transfer efficiency as large as 40% has been obtained. At 10 mm below the cold atom source, the two atomic beams have a few hundred micron size and are more than one millimeter apart from each other.