Two-Wire Waveguide and Interferometer for Cold Atoms

2000/09/29 by E. A. Hinds, Chris Vale, C. J. Vale +1 · 9 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Quantum Information and Cryptography #physics.atom-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.86.1462

17 pages, 5 figures, PDF

arxiv created 2000/09/29 · openalex publication_date 2001/02/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

A versatile miniature de Broglie waveguide is formed by two parallel current-carrying wires in the presence of a uniform bias field. We derive a variety of analytical expressions to describe the guide and present a quantum theory to show that it offers a remarkable range of possibilities for atom manipulation on the submicron scale. These include controlled and coherent splitting of the wave function as well as cooling, trapping, and guiding. In particular, we discuss a novel microscopic atom interferometer with the potential to be exceedingly sensitive.

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• Coherent transport and concentration of particles in optical traps using varying transverse beam profiles
• Wave-function recombination instability in cold-atom interferometers
• Smooth inductively coupled ring trap for atoms
• Quantum interference within the complex quantum Hamilton–Jacobi formalism