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Applied Physics Letters

Micro-electromagnets for atom manipulation

Marija Drndić, Kent S. Johnson, Joseph H. Thywissen, Mara Goff Prentiss, Robert M. Westervelt

Published Jun 1, 1998• 109 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Micro-electromagnets for atom manipulation have been constructed, including magnetic mirrors (serpentine patterns) and traps (circular patterns). They consist of planar micron-scale Au wires on sapphire substrates fabricated using lithography and electroplating. At liquid nitrogen or helium temperatures in vacuum the wires support currents of several amperes with current density ∼108 A/cm2 and power dissipation ∼10 kW/cm2, and they produce magnetic fields to 0.3 T and gradients to 103 T/cm. The micro-electromagnet mirror was used to deflect a beam of metastable helium atoms at grazing angles ∼0.5 mrad.

DOI
10.1063/1.121455

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Micro-electromagnets for atom manipulation have been constructed, including magnetic mirrors (serpentine patterns) and traps (circular patterns). They consist of planar micron-scale Au wires on sapphire substrates fabricated using lithography and electroplating. At liquid nitrogen or helium temperatures in vacuum the wires support currents of several amperes with current density ∼108 A/cm2 and power dissipation ∼10 kW/cm2, and they produce magnetic fields to 0.3 T and gradients to 103 T/cm. The micro-electromagnet mirror was used to deflect a beam of metastable helium atoms at grazing angles ∼0.5 mrad.
We have deflected a beam of metastable helium atoms using the inhomogeneous magnetic field above a microfabricated electromagnet mirror. The mirror consisted of a single current-carrying wire in a periodic serpentine pattern on a planar sapphire substrate. A time-dependent current (and magnetic field) synchronized with a pulsed thermal atomic beam was used to compensate for the chromaticity of the deflection. The freedom to fabricate a wide variety of geometries and to employ time-dependent fields make microelectromagnets promising new tools for atom manipulation.
Many proposals for quantum information processing require precise control over the motion of neutral atoms, as in the manipulation of coherent matter waves or the confinement and localization of individual atoms. Patterns of micron-sized wires, fabricated lithographically on a flat substrate, can conveniently produce large magnetic-field gradients and curvatures to trap cold atoms and to facilitate the production of Bose-Einstein condensates. This paper describes tools and techniques for the construction of such devices.
We describe the production and characterization of microelectromagnets made for trapping and manipulating atomic ensembles. The devices consist of seven fabricated parallel copper conductors 3 μm thick, 25 mm long, with widths ranging from 3 to 30 μm, and are produced by electroplating a sapphire substrate. Maximum current densities in the wires up to 6.5×106 A cm−2 are achieved in continuous mode operation. The device operates successfully at a base pressure of 10−11 mbar. The microstructures permit the realization of a variety of magnetic field configurations and, hence, provide enormous flexibility for controlling the motion and the shape of Bose–Einstein condensates.
Many proposals for quantum information processing require precise control over the motion of neutral atoms, as in the manipulation of coherent matter waves or the confinement and localization of individual atoms. Patterns of micron-sized wires, fabricated lithographically on a flat substrate, can conveniently produce large magnetic-field gradients and curvatures to trap cold atoms and to facilitate the production of Bose-Einstein condensates. The intent of this paper is to provide the researcher who has access to a standard clean-room enough information to design and fabricate such devices.
Summary form only given. Magnetic microtraps with current-carrying wires have initially been proposed in order to reach field configurations with high gradients. In our first demonstration of an electromagnetic microtrap, we used a lithography created wire on a substrate at room temperature to realize a quadrupole trap. Transverse gradients of 1600 G/cm were achieved with only 2A of current flowing, through the wire. More recently, we have extended this technique in Ioffe traps, which are more suitable for achieving long lifetimes at low temperatures. A moving chain of Ioffe-Pritchard traps can be created with a simple planar wire configuration. We present experimental results with this atom motor.