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International Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conference

3.2: Field ionization detection of laser cooled rubidium atoms with a single suspended carbon nanotube

Trygve Ristroph, Anne L. Goodsell, J. A. Golovchenko, Lene Vestergaard Hau

Published Jul 1, 2010• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Laser-cooled rubidium atoms are captured by the inhomogeneous electric field surrounding a single charged suspended carbon nanotube. The atom experiences an induced dipole attractive potential with a singular inverse square scaling. The ultimate fate of the captured atom is field ionization near the wall of the nanotube. Field ionization detection is fast, efficient, and position sensitive, and could become the detection method for a new generation of atom-nanotube traps.

DOI
10.1109/ivnc.2010.5563220

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Laser-cooled rubidium atoms are captured by the inhomogeneous electric field surrounding a single charged suspended carbon nanotube. The atom experiences an induced dipole attractive potential with a singular inverse square scaling. The ultimate fate of the captured atom is field ionization near the wall of the nanotube. Field ionization detection is fast, efficient, and position sensitive, and could become the detection method for a new generation of atom-nanotube traps.
We observe the capture and field ionization of individual atoms near the side wall of a single suspended nanotube. Extremely large cross sections for ionization from an atomic beam are observed at modest voltages due to the nanotube's small radius and extended length. The effects of the field strength on both the atomic capture and the ionization process are clearly distinguished in the data, as are prompt and delayed ionizations related to the locations at which they occur. Efficient and sensitive neutral atom detectors can be based on the nanotube capture and wall ionization processes.
We describe a novel single atom detector that uses the high electric field surrounding a charged single-walled carbon nanotube to attract and subsequently field-ionize neutral atoms. A theoretical study of the field-ionization tunneling rates for atomic trajectories in the attractive potential near a nanowire shows that a broadly applicable, high spatial resolution, low-power, neutral-atom detector with nearly 100% efficiency is realizable with present-day technology. Calculations also show that the system can provide the first opportunity to study quantized conductance phenomena when detecting cold neutral atoms with mean velocities less than 15 m/s.
We observe the capture and field ionization of individual atoms near the side wall of a single suspended nanotube. Extremely large cross sections for ionization from an atomic beam are observed at modest voltages due to the nanotube's small radius and extended length. The effects of the field strength on both the atomic capture and the ionization process are clearly distinguished in the data, as are prompt and delayed ionizations related to the locations at which they occur. Efficient and sensitive neutral atom detectors can be based on the nanotube capture and wall ionization processes.
We demonstrate an atom detector based on field ionization and subsequent ion counting. We make use of field enhancement near tips of carbon nanotubes to reach extreme electrostatic field values of up to $9\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{9}\text{ }\text{V}/\text{m}$, which ionize ground-state rubidium atoms. The detector is based on a carpet of multiwall carbon nanotubes grown on a substrate and used for field ionization, and a channel electron multiplier used for ion counting. We measure the field enhancement at the tips of carbon nanotubes by field emission of electrons. We demonstrate the operation of the field ionization detector by counting atoms from a thermal beam of a rubidium dispenser source. By measuring the ionization rate of rubidium as a function of the applied detector voltage we identify the field ionization distance, which is below a few tens of nanometers in front of nanotube tips. We deduce from the experimental data that field ionization of rubidium near nanotube tips takes place on a time scale faster than ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}10}\text{ }\text{s}$. This property is particularly interesting for the development of fast atom detectors suitable for measuring correlations in ultracold quantum gases. We also describe an application of the detector as partial pressure gauge.
A new model of cold atoms trap using a carbon nanotube is proposed. In this model, for the existence of a stable bound state of cold atom, we send a strong electromagnetic field through the carbon nanotube. This field generates an evanescent wave around the carbon nanotube and creates an effective attractive potential. The consideration of some possible boundary conditions leads to this non-trivial bound state solution. We compare also our result to the two most recent models concerning trapping of cold atoms by using a charged carbon nanotube and an optical fiber.