Interference of atoms and formation of atomic spatial arrays in light fields

Coherent beams of atoms can be produced in the scattering of particles by a resonant standing wave. As a result of interaction with a second standing wave field, the coherent beams are scattered again and interfere with each other. Echo processes eliminate the effect of beam divergence, and interference occurs at large distances. The interference pattern is observable as the formation of a periodic structure in the spatial distribution of the atoms. The atoms can transfer a spatial coherence over an extremely large distance.