We report the trapping of ultracold
87Rb atoms in a 0.7-$\ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}$-period two-dimensional triangular magnetic lattice on an atom chip. The magnetic lattice is created by a lithographically patterned magnetic Co/Pd multilayer film plus bias fields. Rubidium atoms in the $|F=1,{m}_{F}=\ensuremath{-}1\ensuremath{\rangle}$ low-field seeking state are trapped at estimated distances down to about
100nm from the chip surface and with calculated mean trapping frequencies up to about
800kHz. The measured lifetimes of the atoms trapped in the magnetic lattice are in the range 0.4--
1.7ms, depending on distance from the chip surface. Model calculations suggest the trap lifetimes are currently limited mainly by losses due to one-dimensional thermal evaporation following loading of the atoms from the
Z-wire trap into the very tight magnetic lattice traps, rather than by fundamental loss processes such as surface interactions, three-body recombination, or spin flips due to Johnson magnetic noise. The trapping of atoms in a $0.7\text{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$-period magnetic lattice represents a significant step toward using magnetic lattices for quantum tunneling experiments and to simulate condensed matter and many-body phenomena in nontrivial lattice geometries.
We report the coherent manipulation of internal states of neutral atoms in a magnetic microchip trap. Coherence lifetimes exceeding 1 s are observed with atoms at distances of 5-130 microm from the microchip surface. The coherence lifetime in the chip trap is independent of atom-surface distance within our measurement accuracy and agrees well with the results of similar measurements in macroscopic magnetic traps. Because of the absence of surface-induced decoherence, a miniaturized atomic clock with a relative stability in the 10(-13) range can be realized. For applications in quantum information processing, we propose to use microwave near fields in the proximity of chip wires to create potentials that depend on the internal state of the atoms.
Atom chips are robust and extremely powerful toolboxes for quantum optical experiments, since they make it possible to create exceedingly precise magnetic traps for neutral atoms with minimal field modulations. Accurate manipulation of trapped atoms is feasible with magnetic and electric fields created on the atom chip. Therefore atom chips with high quality surfaces and extremely well defined wires were build (roughness < 20nm). Furthermore new generations of atom chips were developed, like the multi-layer atom chip with contact-free wire crossings, the sub-micron structured atom chip and the semiconducting atom chip. Extensive characterisation measurements of atom chip wires demonstrated that the wires stand current densities of up to 10^7A/cm^2 for seconds and voltage differences of more than 500V over 10µm. From the different materials tested doped silicon with a thin silicon dioxide layer is the best qualified substrate for atom chip fabrication. The atom chips fabricated during this thesis have been used in many successful experiments, yielding numerous results. Moreover this thesis established the basics for many further experiments in atom physics and quantum optics and delivers complete instructions for the fabrication of all developed atom chips as well as an introduction to the experiments.