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arXiv:physics/0405084

The Physics of Atom-Surface Interactions

Carsten Henkel

Published May 17, 2004• 0 citations
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Abstract

A tutorial overview is given on interactions between atoms and surfaces that are mediated by the electromagnetic field. The emphasis is on dispersion (or van der Waals) forces and transitions induced by thermal fluctuations in the near field of a surface. Applications with cold atoms held in microscopic traps near surfaces ("atom chips") provide the experimental background for this theory lecture. We do not cover the chemical physics aspects that are relevant at distances comparable to the atomic scale, like adsorption and diffusion on surfaces, growth of nanostructures, or atomic beam diffraction from crystalline surfaces. These are covered by other lecturers.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.physics/0405084

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A tutorial overview is given on interactions between atoms and surfaces that are mediated by the electromagnetic field. The emphasis is on dispersion (or van der Waals) forces and transitions induced by thermal fluctuations in the near field of a surface. Applications with cold atoms held in microscopic traps near surfaces ("atom chips") provide the experimental background for this theory lecture. We do not cover the chemical physics aspects that are relevant at distances comparable to the atomic scale, like adsorption and diffusion on surfaces, growth of nanostructures, or atomic beam diffraction from crystalline surfaces. These are covered by other lecturers.
We review the current status of the field of atom-surface interactions, with an emphasis on the regimes specific to atom chips. Recent developments in theory and experiment are highlighted. In particular, atom-surface interactions define physical limits for miniaturization and coherent operation. This implies constraints for applications in quantum information processing or matter wave interferometry. We focus on atom-surface interaction potentials induced by vacuum fluctuations (Van der Waals and Casimir-Polder forces), and on transitions between atomic quantum states that are induced by thermally excited magnetic near fields. Open questions and current challenges are sketched.
Studies of the long-range interactions between cold atoms and surfaces are now of vital interest. The interest is partly driven by nanotechnology applications, partly by the exploding interest in the encompassing superfield of Casimir effects, and partly by the burgeoning overlap between atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter, and quantum optics. This tutorial lecture will address long-range atom-surface interactions for cold atoms, including an overview of Casimir-Polder interactions and their various manifestations. Some previous theoretical studies that are of particular relevance will be reviewed. In addition some different approaches to the problem and corresponding results, especially concerning the effects of substrate composition, geometry, and finite temperature, will be discussed.
Over the past ten years, our group has investigated the effects of confinement on atoms inside metallic micron–sized cavities in order to elucidate some basic phenomena in the field of cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED). The first of these was the inhibition of spontaneous emission from an atom inside a cavity. This was followed by a laser spectroscopic measurement of the van der Waals interaction between a single Rydberg atom and a gold cavity, which showed that a simple electrostatic model of the atom–cavity interaction is correct when the cavity is small enough. More recently, the retarded Casimir–Polder force was measured between a ground state sodium atom and a large cavity, demonstrating that the van der Waals potential fails at long enough range and that the vacuum fluctuations of the field then have an important role in the interaction of the atom with the cavity. Our group is now pushing forward these investigations to study cavities whose walls have losses and dispersion, where the theory of cavity QED is significantly more complicated. With real surfaces, we have to deal with the complex dielectric response ε(ω) of the material, which exhibits frequency–dependent absorption and dispersion. One particularly interesting case is when a downward transition in the atom is resonant with an excitation of the cavity walls. This opens a new branch for the atomic decay: as an alternative to creating a photon within the space surrounded by the cavity walls the atomic decay can now create an electromagnetic excitation of the walls themselves. Another novel feature of our experiments is that the Bohr frequencies of the atom are close to the kT/h, where T is room temperature. We therefore expect to be able to measure effects associated with QED at finite temperature; in other words, to study how the blackbody radiation affects our experiments. By conducting experiments with real surfaces, we hope to elucidate and perhaps simplify the theoretical models used to describe these systems.
Summary form only given. Summary from only given. In the non retarded regime, atom-surface van der Waals (vW) interactions originate in the forces between the fluctuating atomic dipole and its instantaneous image linked to polarisation charges induced in the surface. vW interactions which are generally attractive (distance law in 1/z3) are of fundamental importance in many fields of physics. The existence of vW repulsion has recently been demonstrated when there is a resonant coupling between the fluctuating atom dipole and a surface resonance. We have started an experimental study of surface-induced wave function mixing between the 3P/sub 0/ and 3P/sub 1/ metastable states of argon. A thermal metastable argon beam is velocity selected thanks to a time of flight (TOF) technique.