Bonn 2000 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik

Q 4: Atomoptik I

Q 4.9: Talk

Monday, April 3, 2000, 19:00–19:15, HS X

Atom Chips — •Donatella Cassettari¹, Ron Folman¹, Björn Hessmo¹, Peter Krüger¹, T. Maier², and Jörg Schmiedmayer¹ — ¹Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck — ²Institut für Festkörperelektronik, TU Wien

We have fabricated and tested microscopic integrated atom optical devices (Atom Chips). Our main results are: (a) Trap parameters with a transverse ground state size below 100 nm and frequencies of above 100 kHz (as required by the quantum computation proposals) have been achieved. Furthermore, we have shown that loading such an mesoscopic atom trap µ m above the surface does not present a major problem. (b) We could trap and guide atoms exclusively with the chip fields (that is without external bias field). (c) We have shown that that wires on a surface together with a bias field can produce quadrupole fields for a MOT, 3D minima for trapping, and 2D minima for guiding. Furthermore, we can manipulate (move) very easily the position of the trap, its shape, its width etc ... . We have demonstrated microscopic beam splitters for guided of atoms on the chip. (d) Standard nano-fabrication techniques and materials may be utilised to build these Atom Chips. Together with the scaling laws of these traps, this will allow us to use much thinner wires and reach traps with ground state sizes of 10nm and trap frequencies in the MHz range.

Supported by the Austrian Science Foundation project SFB15-07, and by the European Union, contract Nr. TMRX-CT96-0002.