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Journal of Physics D Applied Physics

Perpendicularly magnetized, grooved GdTbFeCo microstructures for atom optics

James Wang, S. Whitlock, F. Scharnberg, David S. Gough, A. I. Sidorov, Russell McLean, Peter Hannaford

Published Nov 7, 2005• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Periodically grooved, micron-scale structures incorporating perpendicularly magnetized Gd10Tb6Fe80Co4 magneto-optical films have been fabricated and characterized. Such structures produce a magnetic field having flat equipotentials and whose magnitude decays exponentially with distance above the surface, making them attractive for manipulating ultracold atoms in atom optics. The GdTbFeCo films have been deposited on a Cr underlayer on a silicon (100) wafer and on a grooved silicon microstructure using DC magnetron sputtering. The films are found to have excellent magnetic properties for magnetic atom optics applications, including high remanent magnetization, high coercivity and excellent homogeneity.

DOI
10.1088/0022-3727/38/22/003

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Periodically grooved, micron-scale structures incorporating perpendicularly magnetized Gd10Tb6Fe80Co4 magneto-optical films have been fabricated and characterized. Such structures produce a magnetic field having flat equipotentials and whose magnitude decays exponentially with distance above the surface, making them attractive for manipulating ultracold atoms in atom optics. The GdTbFeCo films have been deposited on a Cr underlayer on a silicon (100) wafer and on a grooved silicon microstructure using DC magnetron sputtering. The films are found to have excellent magnetic properties for magnetic atom optics applications, including high remanent magnetization, high coercivity and excellent homogeneity.
We describe the use of permanent magnetic microstructures based on grooved, perpendicularly magnetised thin films fabricated by electron-beam lithography as optical elements for atom optics. Strong reflection signals and predominantly specular reflection have been realised for beams of cold caesium or rubidium atoms normally incident on grooved perpendicularly magnetised microstructures with periodicities of 1--4 \\mu m. We discuss the use of perpendicularly magnetised microstructures to construct miniature integrated atom optical elements, including magnetic waveguides, microtraps and beamsplitters, for manipulating atomic de Broglie waves on the surface of a substrate.
We report the loading of a 1D permanent magnetic lattice with ultracold atoms on an atom chip. Our magnetic lattice is produced by a perpendicularly magnetised film of Gd10Tb6Fe80Co4 deposited on a 10 μm period grooved structure. A BEC is created in a Z-wire trap about 300 μm from the surface of the chip. An atom cloud at about 5 μK is moved adiabatically towards the lattice by an appropriate bias field. We estimate that about one hundred lattice sites are loaded with atoms about 7 μm from the chip surface at a temperature of about 10 μK.
Abstract We report on the design, fabrication and characterization of magnetic nanostructures to create a lattice of magnetic traps with sub-micron period for trapping ultracold atoms. These magnetic nanostructures were fabricated by patterning a Co/Pd multilayered magnetic film grown on a silicon substrate using high precision e-beam lithography and reactive ion etching. The Co/Pd film was chosen for its small grain size and high remanent magnetization and coercivity. The fabricated structures are designed to magnetically trap 87 Rb atoms above the surface of the magnetic film with one-dimensional and two-dimensional (triangular and square) lattice geometries and sub-micron period. Such magnetic lattices can be used for quantum tunneling and quantum simulation experiments, including using geometries and periods that may be inaccessible with optical lattices.
There is a need in atom optics and atom interferometry for high quality atomic mirrors and beamsplitters that will permit the manipulation and control of beams of slowly moving atoms. We have an established programme for developing and testing mirrors for atom optics based on the interaction between the magnetic dipole moment of an atom and the exponentially varying magnetic field above a periodic array of magnetic elements. Previously we have observed reflection of cold atoms from mirrors of a number of different designs, including a macroscopic array of permanent rare-earth magnets of alternating polarity, grooved ferromagnetic structures, arrays of current-carrying conductors and structures recorded onto magneto-optical films.
We report on the loading and trapping of ultracold atoms in a one-dimensional permanent magnetic lattice of period 10 µm produced on an atom chip. The grooved structure which generates the magnetic lattice potential is fabricated on a silicon substrate and coated with a perpendicularly magnetized multilayered TbGdFeCo/Cr film of effective thickness 960 nm. Ultracold atoms are evaporatively cooled in a Z-wire magnetic trap and then adiabatically transferred to the magnetic lattice potential by applying an appropriate bias field. Under our experimental conditions trap frequencies of up to 90 kHz in the magnetic lattice are measured and the atoms are trapped at a distance of less than 5 µm from the surface with a measured lifetime of about 450 ms. These results are important in the context of studies of quantum coherence of neutral atoms in periodic magnetic potentials on an atom chip.