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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences

Controlling cold atoms above a magnetic reflector

Edward A. Hinds

Published May 15, 1999• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This article outlines the basic physical principles of the magnetic atom reflector and summarizes the state of experiments performed by our group. I also discuss several new ideas for extending the magnetic reflector to confine atoms to a plane, a wire or a dot. These ideas aim at the general problem of controlling atomic motion for use in atom optics. The two–dimensional gas provides a new system in which to study quantum statistical properties such as Bose–Einstein condensation and other phase transitions. The confinement of cold atoms to wires and dots leads naturally towards the realization of a quantum computer.

DOI
10.1098/rsta.1999.0381

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This article outlines the basic physical principles of the magnetic atom reflector and summarizes the state of experiments performed by our group. I also discuss several new ideas for extending the magnetic reflector to confine atoms to a plane, a wire or a dot. These ideas aim at the general problem of controlling atomic motion for use in atom optics. The two–dimensional gas provides a new system in which to study quantum statistical properties such as Bose–Einstein condensation and other phase transitions. The confinement of cold atoms to wires and dots leads naturally towards the realization of a quantum computer.
For the last decade it has been possible to cool atoms to microkelvin temperatures (~1 cm s -1 ) using a variety of optical techniques. Light beams provide the very strong frictional forces required to slow atoms from room temperature (~500 m s -1 ). However, once the atoms are cold, the relatively weak conservative forces of static electric and magnetic fields play an important role. In our group we have been studying the interaction of cold rubidium atoms with periodically magnetized data storage media. Here we review the underlying principles of the forces acting on atoms above a suitably magnetized substrate or near current-carrying wires. We also summarize the status of experiments. These structures can be used as smooth or corrugated reflectors for controlling the trajectories of cold atoms. Alternatively, they may be used to confine atoms to a plane, a line, or a dot and in some cases to reach the quantum limit of confinement. Atoms levitated above a magnetized surface can be guided electrostatically by wires deposited on the surface. The flow and interaction of atoms in such a structure may form the basis of a new technology, `integrated atom optics' which might ultimately be capable of realizing a quantum computer.
We report on progress for a couple of experiments on manipulating cold atoms on a chip for quantum sensing. The first experiments are directed towards developing a compact atom interferometer on an atom chip using a double-well potential. The interferometer uses 87Rb atoms magnetically confined in an atomic waveguide produced by wires on the surface of a lithographically patterned chip. Finite element modeling of combinations of different current configurations with various external bias fields indicated a means of coherently splitting the atomic cloud through dynamically adjusting the currents and bias fields. In these experiments we investigate real-time transformations between different double-well configurations adiabatically and non-adiabatically, and study their effects on the initially trapped atoms. Coherence properties of the two atomic wavepackets are examined. In another set of experiments we investigate the properties of bosons confined to (quasi) one dimension in our magnetic waveguide. When the atom-atom repulsive interaction becomes much larger than the kinetic energy, bosons confined in one dimension can enter a new state of matter, the Tonks-Girardeau gas, in which they behave like non-interacting fermions. However, the bosons can still occupy the same momentum state and therefore the gas cannot be fully described by either Bose-Einstein or Fermi-Dirac statistics. This transition has been observed in optical lattices but not in magnetic atom chip waveguides. We discuss the conditions for obtaining a Tonks-Girardeau gas with 87Rb atoms in our atom chip waveguide as well as a novel signature for observing the transition in our system.
Ultracold atomic gases have emerged as an ideal testground for fundamental many-body physics. The “quantum revolution” triggered by the work of John Bell and the subsequent advances in the experimental control of few-body quantum systems has nowadays entered a new phase associated with the rise of quantum information science and the quest for control over macroscopic quantum systems. The exceptional level of control enabled by cold atom systems has placed them at the frontier of modern quantum physics as a promising route to realizing quantum simulators, engineering topological quantum matter, and emulating interacting gauge fields. By allowing the realization of tunable interactions and synthetic spin-orbit couplings, cold atom systems offer the possibility of engineering topological phases that are not supported by solid-state systems, including experimental realizations of ideal models. In this chapter, we briefly summarize some recent developments in this area and point out the basic physical ideas behind these advances. For a more detailed survey of the field the reader is referred to specialized books and review articles, for example Refs. [ 60 , 210 , 331 , 332 ].
Cold atoms promise versatile atomic chipsUsing a microelectronic chip to hold a cloud of cold atoms hovering above it, physicists in Germany may have developed an "atomic chip" that might eventually shunt Bose-Einstein condensates around an atom chip -just as electrons are shunted around a conventional silicon chip.This tiny circuit creates and manipulates a peculiar state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate (p21).Previously these condensates were made using light or magnetic fields to cool and confine a gas of atoms.Electric currents travelling through wires in the atom chip create a confining magnetic field barely 1 mm wide.This field holds a cloud of 1600 rubidium atoms at a height of less than a tenth of 1 mm above the chip surface.Quantum mechanics dictates that atoms, being so small, have wavelike properties.Normally each wave bobs up and down independently.However, in a Bose-Einstein condensate all of the atomic waves are "coherent" -moving in step, in the same quantum state.Instead of behaving like a
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.
In my talk at the workshop on fundamental physics in space I described the nanokelvin revolution which has taken place in atomic physics. Nanokelvin temperatures have given us access to new physical phenomena including Bose–Einstein condensation, quantum reflection, and fermionic superfluidity in a gas. They also enabled new techniques of preparing and manipulating cold atoms. At low temperatures, only very weak forces are needed to control the motion of atoms. This gave rise to the development of miniaturized setups including atom chips. In Earth-based experiments, gravitational forces are dominant unless they are compensated by optical and magnetic forces. The following text describes the work which I used to illustrate the nanokelvin revolution in atomic physics. Strongest emphasis is given to superfluidity in fermionic atoms. This is a prime example of how ultracold atoms are used to create well-controlled strongly interacting systems and obtain new insight into many-body physics.