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Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Scattering a neutral atom from a charged wire

Johannes Hecker Denschlag, Jörg Schmiedmayer

Published May 20, 1997• 33 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We investigate the scattering of cold, neutral atoms from a charged wire. For an infinitely thin, absorbing wire the 1/ρ 2 interaction leads to quantum steps in the absorption cross section and diffraction structure in the differential scattering cross-section. We discuss the case of a finite-size wire and give parameters for a possible experimental realisation.

DOI
10.1209/epl/i1997-00259-y

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We investigate the scattering of cold, neutral atoms from a charged wire. For an infinitely thin, absorbing wire the 1/ρ 2 interaction leads to quantum steps in the absorption cross section and diffraction structure in the differential scattering cross-section. We discuss the case of a finite-size wire and give parameters for a possible experimental realisation.
By charging a thin wire we realize a pure attractive 1/r21/{r}^{2}1/r2 potential of variable strength for cold neutral atoms. Scattering experiments are performed where the charged wire is placed inside a confined gas of cold lithium atoms. We observe the ``falling'' of atoms into the 1/r21/{r}^{2}1/r2 singularity which so far has been only theoretically discussed in textbooks.
The Aharonov-Bohm (AB) scattering of charged particles by the magnetic field of an infinitely long and infinitely thin solenoid (magnetic string) in an absorbing medium is studied. We discuss the partial-wave approach to this problem and show that the standard partial-wave method can be adjusted to this case. The effect of absorption leads to oscillations of the AB cross section. Based on this we investigate the scattering of neutral atoms with induced electric dipole moments by a charge wire of finite radius, which is placed in a uniform magnetic field. The physical realistic and practically important case that all atoms that collide with the wire are totally absorbed at its surface is studied in detail. The dominating terms of the scattering amplitude are evaluated analytically for different physical constellations. The remaining terms are written in a form suitable for a numerical computation. We show that if the magnetic field is absent, the absorbing charged wire causes oscillations of the cross section. In the presence of the magnetic field the cross section increases and the dominating Aharonov-Bohm peak appears in the forward direction, suppressing the oscillations.
Summary form only given.Cooling and trapping techniques developed in recent years allow for the preparation of cold and dense samples of neutral atoms with a typical deBroglie wavelength of the order of 100 nm or larger, which is in the range of modern nanofabrication technology. In our work we study the motion of cold neutral atoms in potentials that are produced by thin material filaments . In particular, we will discuss the interactions suitable for guiding and trapping neutral atoms/molecules.
We study the scattering of a polarizable atom by a conducting cylindrical wire with incoming boundary conditions, that is, total absorption, near the surface of the wire. Based on the explicit expression given recently [C. Eberlein and R. Zietal, Phys. Rev. A 75, 032516 (2007)] for the nonretarded atom-wire potential, we formulate a hierarchy of approximations that enables the numerical determination of this potential to any desired accuracy as economically as possible. We calculate the complex sss-wave scattering length for the effectively two-dimensional atom-wire scattering problem. The scattering length a\mathfrak{a}a depends on the radius RRR of the wire and a characteristic length $\ensuremath{\beta}$ related to the polarizability of the atom via a simple scaling relation, $\mathfrak{a}=R \stackrel{~}{\mathfrak{a}}(\ensuremath{\beta}/R)$. The ``scaled scattering length'' a \stackrel{~}{\mathfrak{a}}a  tends to unity in the thick-wire limit $\ensuremath{\beta}/R\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, and it grows almost proportional to 1/R1/R1/R in the opposite thin-wire limit.
We study low-energy scattering of a neutral atom by a perfectly conducting cylindrical nanowire. Based on the exact atom-wire potential given recently by Eberlein and Zietal [Phys. Rev. A 80, 012504 (2009)] we derive tractable expressions for both the nonretarded van der Waals limit and the highly retarded limit as well as a realistic description of the transition between these two limits. For real atoms and wire radii greater than a few atomic units, the nonretarded van der Waals limit is insufficient, whereas the highly retarded limit of the atom-wire potential gives an accurate description of low-energy elastic scattering and absorption cross sections.