Abstract
The lifetime of atoms trapped in a wire trap generated by a closed-circuit superconductive current on a strip is measured as a function of the distance between the atom and the strip. The lifetime is found to be longer than 10 s at a distance of . This value is an order of magnitude longer than the lifetime of a trap generated by a normal current at the same distance. However, it is many orders of magnitude shorter than the theoretical decay rate induced by the spin-flip transition caused by the fluctuation of the current. This shows that for a type-II superconductor the dominant trap loss mechanism is not the spin-flip transition caused by noise as with a normal current atom trap. An analysis of our measurement suggests that magnetic field distortion resulting from flux penetration into the superconductor leads to much faster decay.
- Received 25 February 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.79.053641
©2009 American Physical Society