We employ a combination of optical UV- and electron-beam-lithography to create an atom chip combining sub-micron wire structures with larger conventional wires on a single substrate. The new multi-layer fabrication enables crossed wire configurations, greatly enhancing the flexibility in designing potentials for ultra cold quantum gases and Bose-Einstein condensates. Large current densities of >6 x 10^7 A/cm^2 and high voltages of up to 65 V across 0.3 micron gaps are supported by even the smallest wire structures. We experimentally demonstrate the flexibility of the next generation atom chip by producing Bose-Einstein condensates in magnetic traps created by a combination of wires involving all different fabrication methods and structure sizes.
Concave pyramids are created in the (100) surface of a silicon wafer by anisotropic etching in potassium hydroxide. High quality micro-mirrors are then formed by sputtering gold onto the smooth silicon (111) faces of the pyramids. These mirrors show great promise as high quality optical devices suitable for integration into MOEMS and atom chips. We have shown that structures of this shape can be used to laser-cool and hold atoms in a magneto-optical trap.
The limitations for the coherent manipulation of neutral atoms with fabricated solid state devices, so-called `atom chips, are addressed. Specifically, we examine the dominant decoherence mechanism, which is due to the magnetic noise originating from the surface of the atom chip. It is shown that the contribution of fluctuations in the chip wires at the shot noise level is not negligible. We estimate the coherence times and discuss ways to increase them. Our main conclusion is that future advances should allow for coherence times as long as one second, a few micrometers away from the surface.
Atoms can be trapped and guided using nano-fabricated wires on surfaces, achieving the scales required by quantum information proposals. These Atom Chips form the basis for robust and widespread applications of cold atoms ranging from atom optics to fundamental questions in mesoscopic physics, and possibly quantum information systems.
Surface based geometries of microfabricated wires or patterned magnetic films can be used to magnetically trap and manipulate ultracold neutral atoms or Bose-Einstein condensates. We investigate the magnetic properties of such atom chips using a scanning magnetoresistive (MR) microscope with high spatial resolution and high field sensitivity. We show that MR sensors are ideally suited to observe small variations of the magnetic field caused by imperfections in the wires or magnetic materials which ultimately lead to fragmentation of ultracold atom clouds. Measurements are also provided for the magnetic field produced by a thin current-carrying wire with small geometric modulations along the edge. Comparisons of our measurements with a full numeric calculation of the current flow in the wire and the subsequent magnetic field show excellent agreement. Our results highlight the use of scanning MR microscopy as a convenient and powerful technique for precisely characterizing the magnetic fields produced near the surface of atom chips.
We report on the integration of small-scale optical components into silicon wafers for use in atom chips. We present an on-chip fibre-optic atom detection scheme that can probe clouds with small atom numbers. The fibres can also be used to generate microscopic dipole traps. We describe our most recent results with optical microcavities and show that single-atom detection can be realised on an atom chip. The key components have been fabricated by etching directly into the atom chip silicon substrate.