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Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference

Tightly confining magnetic waveguides for atoms

Joseph H. Thywissen, Maxim Olshanii, Gary Zabow, Marija Drndić, Kent S. Johnson, Robert M. Westervelt, Mara Goff Prentiss

Published Jan 20, 2003• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given. Recently, there has been much interest in the physics of neutral atoms tightly confined in one or more dimensions. Simultaneously, there has been continued interest in waveguides for atoms. In this work, we present a linear magnetic waveguide for atoms capable of tight transverse confinement, such that transverse energy level spacings are on the order of the temperature of convenient atomic sources.

DOI
10.1109/qels.1999.807334

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Summary form only given. Recently, there has been much interest in the physics of neutral atoms tightly confined in one or more dimensions. Simultaneously, there has been continued interest in waveguides for atoms. In this work, we present a linear magnetic waveguide for atoms capable of tight transverse confinement, such that transverse energy level spacings are on the order of the temperature of convenient atomic sources.
Summary form only given. The integration of atom optics components on a small surface may lead to many new experiments exploring the boundaries of quantum mechanics. Coherent transport of atoms is a key ingredient, and for this reason many groups are developing magnetic waveguides for cold atoms. So far the confinement in these guides is rather poor, resulting in the population of many transverse modes. Typically 10 Gauss over 100 /spl mu/m gives a mode spacing of 40 kHz for Cs atoms. We have developed a new magnetic waveguide, based on ferromagnetic material. At saturation the surface-field is 1 Tesla, which can be applied over a 10 /spl mu/m distance corresponding to a mode spacing of 18 MHz. We use a sandwich of mu-metal and copper sheets to generate a magnetic field. An electrical current of up to 5 A is running through the copper, encircling the mu-metal sheet. This induces an upward or downward field in the mu-metal, similar to a solenoid with a ferromagnetic core. Thin kapton sheets are used to provide electrical isolation.
Magnetic trapping of laser-cooled neutral atoms has been demonstrated at NBS and is progressing in other laboratories. Confinement of any object requires exchanging kinetic for potential energy, and for neutral atoms, this necessarily derives from shifts of internal energy levels. This is implemented through the force experienced by the atomic magnetic moment in a carefully designed, highly inhomogeneous field. Since magnetic fields of convenient strength can shift atomic energy levels by only a few gigahertz (temperature ≌ 0.1 K), neutral atom traps are very shallow and must be loaded with very cold atoms. We present some motivations for using magnetic traps and then discuss the constraints and optimal configurations of various arrangements. For example, no trap can be isotropic. Next we discuss both the classical and quantum mechanical motions of trapped atoms. These motions are important for at least two reasons: First, several schemes under study for further cooling depend on knowing the position and velocity of the atoms, as well as the vector field at each point along the orbit. Second, magnetic traps depend on the atomic moment remaining aligned with the field as the atom orbits in the trap, and this precludes rapid motion through a low-field region.
It is shown that when a magnetic field is used to support neutral atoms against the gravitational force mgmgmg, the total curvature of the field magnitude BBB must be larger than ${m}^{2}{g}^{2}∕(2{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{2}B)$, where $\ensuremath{\mu}$ is the magnetic moment of the atoms. This limits the minimum confinement strength obtainable for a trapped atomic gas. It is also conjectured that the curvature must be larger than twice this value for a magnetic potential that varies in only one or two dimensions, such as an atomic waveguide.
We show that the conductance of atoms through a tightly confining waveguide constriction is quantized in units of ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{dB}}^{2}/\ensuremath{\pi}$, where ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{dB}}$ is the de Broglie wavelength of the incident atoms. Such a constriction forms the atom analog of an electron quantum point contact and is an example of quantum transport of neutral atoms in an aperiodic system. We present a practical constriction geometry that can be realized using a microfabricated magnetic waveguide, and discuss how a pair of such constrictions can be used to study the quantum statistics of weakly interacting gases in small traps.
We consider the quantized motion of neutral atoms at very low temperature in a two-dimensional magnetic quadrupole structure formed, for example, by four current-carrying wires along the z direction. The magnetic field B\mathbf{B}B in the guide is proportional to the vector $(x,\ensuremath{-}y).$ We show that this field can be used to make a single-mode atomic de Broglie waveguide which has bound states of low angular momentum, even though the field at the center of the guide goes to zero. We investigate the spectrum and decay rate of the transverse modes for spin-1/2 and spin-1 atoms.