Berlin 2005 – scientific programme
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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 64: Quantengase IV
Q 64.1: Talk
Wednesday, March 9, 2005, 11:00–11:15, HU Kinosaal
Micromanipulation of ultra-cold atoms close to conducting surfaces — •Stephan Wildermuth1, Peter Krüger1, Sebastian Hofferberth1, Elmar Haller1, Daniel Gallego Garcia1, Sönke Groth1,2, Mauritz Anderson1, Israel Bar-Joseph2, and Jörg Schmiedmayer1 — 1Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 12, 69120 Heidelberg — 2Weizmann Institut, Rehovot, Israel
Atom chips allow to manipulate ultra-cold thermal clouds or Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) microns above a conducting surface by means of magnetic and electro-static fields. The current and charge carrying structures creating these potentials are fabricated by standard microfabrication technology.
In our setup disorder potentials which arise from imperfections in the chip surface have been observed to be two orders of magnitude smaller than in experiments done in other groups. With quasi-1D BECs as a sensitive probe we have been able to study fluctuations of the trapping potentials below Δ B/B ∼ 10−5 at atom to surface distances in the micron range. This reduction is due to lithographically fabricating the atom chip structures into high quality evaporated gold layers.
We have carried out a variety of experiments to further investigate these surface disorder potentials: several different wires have been probed, magnetic and electro-static disorder potentials have been compared, and 2D potential maps above broad chip wires have been measured.