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AIP conference proceedings

Miniature guides for neutral atoms

E. A. Hinds

Published Jan 1, 2001• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

This article discusses the manipulation of cold atoms by miniature magnetic structures. In particular we describe some recent advances in atomic de Broglie waveguides, a magnetic conveyor belt for transporting atoms across a surface, and steps towards making an array of atoms for integrated atom optics.
DOI
10.1063/1.1354364

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Have been demonstrated: a beam splitter, a conveyor belt, and a switch. Just as electrons drive electronics and photons drive photonics, many researchers hope that cold, neutral atoms will drive a future “atomtronics.” To process information, atoms will need to be manipulated on or near an “atom chip” using atom-based analogs of mirrors, lenses, waveguides, gratings, and other devices. The new devices reported here all exploit the interaction between a neutral atom’s magnetic moment and an external magnetic field with a gradient strong enough to create microscopic potentials. Jörg Schmiedmayer of the University of Heidelberg and his colleagues have designed a beam splitter for guided atoms, using a Y-shaped current-carrying wire nanofabricated on a surface. Depending on how current is sent through the Y, atoms can be directed to the output arms with any desired ratio. A group at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Munich has been able to confine atom clouds in separate potential wells and transport them with 800-nm precision near a surface having time-dependent currents in a lithographically patterned conductor. The researchers have used their “magnetic conveyor belt” to merge separate clouds; their evidence shows that the process is adiabatic and can be reversed to coherently split wavepackets. Also using lithography, and following their own beam splitter, a group at the University of Colorado and NIST in Boulder has devised a switch that can direct a guided beam of neutral atoms to either of two output ports separated by 8 mm. Both the incoming and outgoing atoms are guided between two parallel wires having current flowing in the same direction. In the switch region, the atoms are guided alongside two wires with oppositely flowing current. (D. Cassettari et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 5483, 2000 http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.5483 . W. Hänsel et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 608, 2001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.608 . D. Müller et al., Opt. Lett. 25, 1382, 2000 http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.25.001382 ; D. Müller et al., Phys. Rev. A , in press.)© 2001 American Institute of Physics.
Clouds of cold atoms, collected and refrigerated by laser light, can be cooled to nanoKelvin temperatures. This has created the new field of atom optics where cold atoms are manipulated, much as photons are controlled in traditional optics using mirrors, lenses, and gratings. It is also becoming possible to confine and manipulate atoms in extremely small traps and waveguides, which give access to de Broglie wave physical optics. Atoms flowing in such structures could provide a new technology based on the flow and quantum interactions of neutral atoms. Atom 'chips' could lead to integrated atom interferometers and even possibly to a quantum information processor.
We report progress in our project on Integrated Atom Optics. We are exploring methods of producing surface-based microscopic atom optical elements that are made from permanent magnetic films and current-carrying microwires. We will discuss different configurations of microtraps, waveguides and couplers that can manipulate atomic de Broglie waves on the surface of a substrate. In particular we will describe the characteristics of a mirror magneto-optical trap that has allowed trapping of rubidium atoms in vicinity of a surface.