a twostate raman coupler for coherent atom optics we present results on a raman lasersystem that resonantly drives a closed twophoton transition between two levels in different hyperfine ground states of 87rb the coupler is based on a novel optical design for producing two phasecoherent optical beams to drive a raman transition operated as an outcoupler it produces an atom laser in a single internal atomic state with the lower divergence and increased brightness typical of a raman outcoupler due to the optical nature of the outcoupling the twostate outcoupler is an ideal candidate for transferring photon correlations onto atomlaser beams as our laser system couples just two hyperfine ground states it has also been used as an internal state beamsplitter taking the next major step towards free space ramsey interferometry with an atom laser