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| ATOMICS | |||||||||||||||||||
| (ATom Optics with MICro Structures) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Schematic setup of a microlens array creating dipole traps to store atoms. | |||||||||||||||||||
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State-of-the-art technology in micro and nano-structures has been combined with the quantum optical techniques of laser cooling, laser trapping and quantum control to open a new gateway for quantum information processing and matter wave optics with atomic systems. Within the past years significant results have been reported. Microfabricated optical systems have been used to create light fields that trap and guide ultra cold neutral atoms as a result of the optical dipole force and microfabricated magnetic devices were used to produce an atomic Bose-Einstein-Condensate (BEC) on a micro-chip. A special attraction of using micro and nano optical elements lies in the fact, that most of the currently used techniques in atom optics as well as laser cooling are based on the optical manipulation of atoms. The use of microfabricated optical elements is therefore in many ways the extension of the conventional optical methods into the micro and even nano regime, so that much of the knowledge and experience that has been acquired in atom optics can be applied to this new regime in a very straightforward way. Current micro optical systems are using refractive and diffractive optical elements as well as computer generated holograms which allow the creation of versatile light fields for the manipulation of atoms with dipole potentials. On the other hand magnetic microstructures are characterized by their huge achievable magnetic field gradient. Atoms trapped in the micro-trap can be successful evaporatively cooled directly on the microstructured chip. The creation of a BEC with magnetic microstructured chips were successfully demonstrated and it become a well known technique for the generation of a quantum degenerated atomic ensemble in integrated microstructured systems. This project will be the first experiment combining the unique features of current carrying and optical micro- and nano-structures integrated on one single Atom-Chip for applications in atom optics and quantum information processing with neutral atoms. It will join the unique features of devices based on the quantum mechanical behavior of atomic matter waves with the tremendous potential of micro- and nano-fabrication technology. |
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| For further details on the current status of this project: | |||||||||||||||||||
| ATOMICS - Darmstadt, Germany | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Microoptical Realization of Arrays of Selectively Addressable Dipole Traps: A Scalable Configuration for Quantum Computation with Atomic Qubits | Interferometer-Type Structures for Guided Atoms | ||||||||||||||||||
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