Heidelberg 1999 – scientific programme
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Q: Quantenoptik
Q 34: Atomoptik II
Q 34.1: Fachvortrag
Thursday, March 18, 1999, 14:00–14:30, PH5
Mesoscopic Atom Optics — •Donatella Cassettari, Donatella Cassettari, Alexander Chenet, Johannes Denschlag, Stefan Schneider, and Jörg Schmiedmayer — Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck
By bringing the atoms close to material macroscopic objects, the proximity of the atoms to the objects allows the design of tailored and easily controllable potentials which can be easily miniaturized using standard nanofabrication techniques. There are in principle two possibilities to build such small potentials using material objects: (1) The electric interaction potential Uel=−1/2α E2 created by a charged nanostructure and (2) the magnetic interaction created by a current possibly modified by bias fields. A combination between those allows to design a variety of very versatile trapping and guiding potentials which can be used to build novel atom optical elements at the micro scale like quantum wires and quantum dots [1].
Here we present an overview of our experiments investigating atoms interacting with small charged [2] and current carrying [3] structures. The simplicity and versatility of the basic design principles demonstrated in the experiments will allow for miniaturization and integration of atom optical elements into matter wave quantum circuits thereby creating mesoscopic atom optics similar to mesoscopic quantum electronics. Possible applications to quantum information and surface physics will be discussed.
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 Habilitationsschrift Universität Innsbruck (1996); J. Schmiedmayer, Eur. Phys. J. D 4, 57 (1998).
[2] J. Denschlag, G. Umshaus, J. Schmiedmayer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 737 (1998).
[3] 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.