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Chinese Physics Letters

Directly Trapping Atoms in a U-Shaped Magneto-Optical Trap Using a Mini Atom Chip

Hui Yan, Yang Guo-Qing, Wang Jin, Mingsheng Zhan

Published Sep 1, 2008• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the trapping of 85 Rb atoms directly on a chip-size U-shaped magneto-optical trap (U-MOT). The trap includes a U-shaped wire on the chip, two bias magnetic field coils and laser beams. The capture volume of the U-MOT is theoretically calculated, and the trap is experimentally realized. With 2 A current applied to the U-shaped wire and 2-Gauss horizontal bias field, more than 2 × 10 6 atoms are trapped. In contrast with an ordinary mirror-MOT, this U-MOT captures atoms directly from the background, thus the trap size is greatly reduced. Based on this mini trap scheme, it is possible to realize a chip-size atom trap array for quantum information processing.

DOI
10.1088/0256-307x/25/9/034

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We demonstrate controllable double magneto-optical traps (DMOTs) on an atom chip: At first, DMOTs, which trap atoms directly from the background rubidium vapor in an ultrahigh-vacuum environment, are realized on an atom chip simultaneously. The double quadrupole magnetic fields are produced by two separate U-shaped microwires on the atom chip, combined with a bias magnetic field. Then, we determine the best parameters for a U-shaped magneto-optical trap (UMOT) through a detailed comparison of the capture ability at different currents and the bias magnetic field between two different geometric sizes of UMOT. Finally, we demonstrate the mixing and splitting of the DMOTs on the atom chip with the help of an extra pair of anti-Helmholtz coils.
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Abstract Atom chips provide flexible technologies for implementing modern concepts in quantum optics, quantum measurement, and quantum information processing. Atom chips are miniature devices that confine, control and manipulate cold atoms using electric, magnetic, and light fields. Due to the shrinkage of scale, arbitrary magnetic traps can be generated from current sources outside the chip’s vacuum compartment, in contrast to a traditional setup. This makes it easy to change trap configurations in an experiment that involves rapid prototyping of quantum states and quantum trajectory designs in free space. In this work, we show relevant parameters needed for transferring a cold atom cloud at the recoil limit from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) to an area close to the atom chip. To create a movable magnetic potential for this transfer, we used the MOT coils and an additional pair of coils in an anti-Helmholtz configuration. The properties of the movable potential were obtained by performing the Computer Simulation Tool (CST EM Studio suite®). Furthermore, an appropriate magnetic trap on a chip is developed, based on the simulation from COMSOL Multiphysics. We used a magnetic field gradient of around 20 G/cm to transport the cold atom with a distance over 20 mm with a temperature gain below 100 micro-Kelvin. The simulation results are based on an atom chip with a size of 2×2 cm2 and a copper wire thickness of 2 mm. The atom chip consists of Z, U and I-shaped wires that generate a quadrupole magnetic field. The resulting field minimum can be made at least 7 mm away from the chip surface.
An array of square current-carrying wires is proposed to construct a two-dimensional (2D) array of surface magneto-optical traps and Ioffe magnetic ones for realizing a 2D lattice of Bose-Einstein condensations (BECs) on an atom chip. Our study shows that when a vertical homogeneous bias magnetic field is only used, the wires will form a 2D array of quadrupole magnetic traps, which can be used to construct 2D lattice of surface magneto-optical micro-traps. While another horizontal homogeneous bias field is added simultaneously, the above 2D array of quadrupole micro-traps will be changed as an array of surface Ioffe micro-traps, which can be used to form a 2D magnetic lattice and then realize a 2D array of BECs. The dynamic loading process of cold (87)Rb atoms from each micro-MOT into Ioffe micro-trap is studied by using Monte-Carlo simulations, and our results show that the scheme can be used to realize a natural and effective loading of cold atoms from 2D array of micro-MOTs into 2D array of Ioffe micro-traps, and the loading efficiency can be reach ~ 65%. Moreover, the positions of each BEC (or MOT) in 2D array of magnetic micro-traps can be controlled by adjusting the currents in the wires or by changing the additional vertical bias field.