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arXiv:1310.6054 · American Journal of Physics

How does a magnetic trap work?

Jesús Pérez‐Ríos, Ángel S. Sanz

Published Oct 23, 2013• 31 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Magnetic trapping is a cornerstone of modern ultracold physics and its applications, including quantum information processing, quantum metrology, quantum optics, and high-resolution spectroscopy. Here, a comprehensive analysis and discussion of the basic physics behind the most commonly used magnetic traps used in Bose-Einstein condensation is presented. This analysis includes the quadrupole trap, the time-averaged orbiting potential trap, and the Ioffe-Pritchard trap. The trapping conditions and efficiency of these devices can be determined from simple derivations based on classical electromagnetism, even though they operate on quantum objects.

DOI
10.1119/1.4819167

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Magnetic trapping is a cornerstone of modern ultracold physics and its applications, including quantum information processing, quantum metrology, quantum optics, and high-resolution spectroscopy. Here, a comprehensive analysis and discussion of the basic physics behind the most commonly used magnetic traps used in Bose-Einstein condensation is presented. This analysis includes the quadrupole trap, the time-averaged orbiting potential trap, and the Ioffe-Pritchard trap. The trapping conditions and efficiency of these devices can be determined from simple derivations based on classical electromagnetism, even though they operate on quantum objects.
We present a magnetic trapping scheme for neutral atoms based on a hybrid of Ioffe-Pritchard and time-averaged orbiting potential traps. The resulting double-well magnetic potential has readily controllable barrier height and well separation. This offers a new tool for studying the behavior of Bose condensates in double-well potentials, and in particular for atom optics and interferometry. We formulate a description for the potential of this magnetic trap and discuss practical issues such as loading with atoms, evaporative cooling and manipulating the potential.
We present the first experimental realization of Bose–Einstein condensation in a purely magnetic double-well potential. This has been achieved by combining a static Ioffe–Pritchard trap with a time orbiting potential. The double trap can be rapidly switched to a single-harmonic trap of identical oscillation frequencies, thus accelerating the two condensates towards each other. Furthermore, we show that time-averaged potentials can be used as a means to control the radial confinement of the atoms. Manipulation of the radial confinement allows vortices and radial quadrupole oscillations to be excited.
We propose and numerically study two permanent magnetic micro-structures for creating Ioffe-Pritchard microtraps. A bias magnetic field is used to vary the depth, trap frequencies and the minimum of each microtrap. After the Bose-Einstein condensation achievement, the bias magnetic field can be slowly removed to increase the trap barrier heights for more efficiently holding the Bose-Einstein condensates. Even without the external magnetic field, it is possible to hold ultracold atoms in the microtraps. These microtraps may also be useful for single atom experiments for quantum information processing due to their very high confinement.
We demonstrate Bose-Einstein condensation of rubidium atoms in a simple low-power magnetic trap. This trap combines the quadrupole with the Ioffe configuration ~QUIC trap! and consists of just three coils. Magneto-optically trapped Rb atoms are first loaded into the linear trapping potential of a magnetic quadrupole, which is then converted into the parabolic geometry of an Ioffe trap. During this process two spherical quadrupole traps with perpendicular axes merge and the trapped atomic cloud moves close to the magnetic field producing coils, resulting in tight confinement of the atoms while the power dissipation of the trap remains low. The magnetically trapped atoms are cooled to below the phase transition of Bose-Einstein condensation by rf-induced evaporation. @S1050-2947~98!51210-3#
We demonstrate Bose-Einstein condensation of rubidium atoms in a simple low-power magnetic trap. This trap combines the quadrupole with the Ioffe configuration (QUIC trap) and consists of just three coils. Magneto-optically trapped 87Rb{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms are first loaded into the linear trapping potential of a magnetic quadrupole, which is then converted into the parabolic geometry of an Ioffe trap. During this process two spherical quadrupole traps with perpendicular axes merge and the trapped atomic cloud moves close to the magnetic field producing coils, resulting in tight confinement of the atoms while the power dissipation of the trap remains low. The magnetically trapped atoms are cooled to below the phase transition of Bose-Einstein condensation by rf-induced evaporation.