Trapping ultracold atoms in submicron period magnetic lattices
Tien Tran, Yibo Wang, I. Herrera, Armandas Balčytis, D. Nissen, M. Albrecht, S. Whitlock, Andrei I. Sidorov, Peter Hannaford
Abstract
In recent years, ultracold atoms trapped in periodic lattices have attracted much attention as a simulator for condensed matter systems because of the ability to manipulate and precisely control the ultracold atoms. Periodic arrays of magnetic microtraps patterned on a magnetic film provide a potential complementary tool to conventional optical lattices for trapping arrays of ultracold atoms. Compared to optical lattices, magnetic lat- tices allow a higher degree of design flexibility by allowing almost arbitrary lattice geometries and they also allow lower technical noise and state-selective trapping of atoms. This paper reports the trapping of ultracold 87Rb atoms in 0.7 μm-period triangular and square magnetic lattices integrated on an atom chip as a step towards using magnetic lattices as a new platform for simulating condensed matter and quantum many-body phenomena in nontrivial lattice geometries.