The European Physical Journal D (EPJ D)

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Eur. Phys. J. D 7, 361-367

Microfabricated magnetic waveguides for neutral atoms

J.H. Thywissen - M. Olshanii - G. Zabow - M. Drndic - K.S. Johnson - R.M. Westervelt - M. Prentiss

Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
joseph_thywissen@post.harvard.edu

Received 1st December 1998 and Received in final form 23 February 1999

Abstract
We describe how tightly confining magnetic waveguides for atoms can be created with microfabricated or nanofabricated wires. Rubidium atoms guided in the devices we have fabricated would have a transverse mode energy spacing of $50~\mu$ K. We discuss the creation of a single-mode waveguide for atom interferometry whose depth is comparable to magneto-optical trap (MOT) temperatures. We also discuss the application of microfabricated waveguides to low-dimensional systems of quantum degenerate gases, and show that confinement can be strong enough to observe fermionization in a strongly interacting bosonic ensemble.

PACS
03.75.BeAtom and neutron optics - 32.80.PjOptical cooling of atoms; trapping