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In mesoscopic quantum electronics, electrons move inside semiconductor structures and are manipulated using potentials where at least one dimension is comparable to the de-Broglie wavelength of the electrons. Similar potentials can be created for neutral atoms moving microns above surfaces using charged and current carrying structures nano-fabricated onto a surface.
Neutral-atom manipulation using such integrated micro-devices (Atom Chips [1]) combines the best of two worlds: The ability to use cold atoms - a well controllable quantum system, and the immense technological capabilities of nano fabrication and microelectronics to manipulate the atoms.
We will give an overview of the experiments studying the manipulation of cold thermal atoms and BEC's on Atom Chips. Atoms can be held and manipulated with high spatial resolution µm above the Atom Chip surface in strongly confining traps and guides. Using our atom chips, lithographically fabricated into high quality evaporated Gold layers [2], we could study the effects of the nearby surface on the atoms. Most important: previously observed huge disorder potentials are orders of magnitude smaller in our experiments. With Bose-Einstein condensates as a sensitive probe, we could study the spatial variation of magnetic potentials down surface distances in the µm range. Using our very smooth potentials we started experiments looking at various topics in mesoscopic and 1-d physics of degenerate quantum gases. [1] R. Folman et al. Adv.At.Mol.Opt.Phys. 48, 263 (2002) [2] Chip fabrication see: S. Groth et al. cond-mat/0404141, see also [1] and R. Folman et al. PRL. 84, 4749 (2000). Supported by: EU: IST-2001-38863 (ACQP), HPMF-CT-2002-02022 and DFG, Schwerpunkt Quanteninformationsverarbeitung and Interaction in ultracold Atomic and Molecular gases. |