Abstract
We show that the performance and functionality of atom chips can be transformed by using graphene-based van der Waals heterostructures to overcome present limitations on the lifetime of the trapped atom cloud and on its proximity to the chip surface. Our analysis involves Green's-function calculations of the thermal (Johnson) noise and Casimir-Polder atom-surface attraction produced by the atom chip. This enables us to determine the lifetime limitations produced by spin flip, tunneling, and three-body collisional losses. Compared with atom chips that use thick metallic conductors and substrates, atom-chip structures based on two-dimensional materials reduce the minimum attainable atom-surface separation to a few hundred nanometers and increase the lifetimes of the trapped atom clouds by orders of magnitude so that they are limited only by the quality of the background vacuum. We predict that atom chips with two-dimensional conductors will also reduce spatial fluctuations in the trapping potential originating from imperfections in the conductor patterns. These advantages will enhance the performance of atom chips for quantum sensing applications and for fundamental studies of complex quantum systems.
8 More- Received 7 May 2021
- Accepted 27 September 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.104.053108
©2021 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
synopsis
Longer Trapping Expected for Graphene Atom Chips
Published 16 November 2021
Predictions indicate that atom chips that use graphene contacts in their circuitry rather than metal ones can trap atoms for significantly longer times.
See more in Physics