Ultracold atom-optical analogs of electronic components and devices

Ronald Pepino, Brian Seaman, Murray Holland

Ronald Pepino, J. COOPER, D. Z. Anderson +1 more

Ron Pepino

Atomtronics is a relatively new subfield of atomic physics that aims to realize the device behavior of electronic components in ultracold atom-optical systems. The fact that these systems are coherent makes them particularly interesting since, in addition to current, one can impart quantum states onto the current carriers themselves or perhaps perform quantum computational operations on them. After reviewing the fundamental ideas of this subfield, we report on the theoretical and experimental progress made towards developing externally-driven and closed loop devices. The functionality and potential applications for these atom analogs to electronic and spintronic systems is also discussed.

V. I. Balykin

Murray Holland, B. T. Seaman, M. Kraemer +1 more

A collection of ultracold atoms subject to a spatially periodic potential energy can exhibit behavior analogous to electrons in a crystal lattice. This fact was profoundly established by the demonstration of the superfluid to Mott-insulator transition of atoms in an optical lattice. An optical lattice consists of atoms subject to a periodic potential produced by interfering laser beams. The analogy between ultracold atoms in optical lattices and electrons in crystal lattices is manifestly a rich one. Recently, we have made a a proposal to extend the analogy to doped semiconductor materials. Lattice ”defects” achieve behaviors similar to P-type and N-type semiconductor materials. Naturally the interest is to adjoin P-type and N-type atoms lattices to produce an atom diode, and then an NPN or PNP lattice ”sandwich” to achieve bipolar transistor-like behavior for ultracold atoms. Such heterogeneous structures can indeed be made to mimic their electronic counterparts.

V. I. Balykin