Heidelberg 1999 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik

Q 20: Atomoptik I

Q 20.5: Talk

Tuesday, March 16, 1999, 15:15–15:30, PH5

Guiding and Trapping Atoms with a Wire — •Johannes Denschlag, Donatella Cassettari, Alexander Chenet, Stefan Schneider, and Jörg Schmiedmayer — Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck

We present two simple and versatile atom guides that are based on magnetic trapping potentials created by a thin current carrying wire [1]: In the ‘Kepler guide’ atoms are guided in their high field seeking state circling around the wire. In the ‘side guide’ atoms are guided in their low field seeking state along a line of a magnetic field minimum on the side of the wire. In our experiments we study the transport of cold Li atoms from a magnetic-optical trap in these guiding potentials. We were able to measure scaling properties and extract characteristic atomic velocity distributions for each guide. The ‘side guide’ is especially interesting because it can be easily miniaturized using standard nanofabrication techniques to build atom optical elements on the micro scale.

This work was supported by the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF), project S065-05, the Jubiläums Fonds der Österreichischen Nationalbank, project 6400, and by the European Union, contract Nr. TMRX-CT96-0002.

[1] J. Schmiedmayer in IQEC XVIII Technical Digest, Series 1992, Vol. 9, 284 (1992); Phys. Rev. A 52, R13 (1995); J. Denschlag, D. Cassettari, Jörg Schmiedmayer, quant-ph/9809076.