Trapping cold atoms near carbon nanotubes: Thermal spin flips and Casimir-Polder potential

2007/03/31 by Rachele Fermani, R. Fermani, Stefan Scheel +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Carbon fibers #Carbon nanotube #Casimir effect #Classical mechanics #Composite material #Condensed matter physics #Geography #Materials science #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Meteorology #Nanotechnology #Physics #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Spin (aerodynamics) #Thermal #Thermodynamics #Trapping #cond-mat.other #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.75.062905

8 pages, 3 figures

arxiv created 2007/04/24 · openalex publication_date 2007/06/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of trapping ultracold ⁸⁷Rb atoms near the outside of a metallic carbon nanotube, which we imagine using as a miniaturized current-carrying wire. We calculate atomic spin-flip lifetimes and compare the strength of the Casimir-Polder potential with the magnetic trapping potential. Our analysis indicates that the Casimir-Polder force is the dominant loss mechanism, and we compute the minimum distance to the carbon nanotube at which the atoms can be trapped to be larger than 100\phantom\rule0.3em0exnm.

Citations

• El final de la era del petróleo barato
• The van der Waals energy of atomic systems near absorbing and dispersing bodies
• The general theory of van der Waals forces
• The Influence of Retardation on the London-van der Waals Forces
• Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon
• Spatial decoherence near metallic surfaces

Cited by

• Scattering and absorption of ultracold atoms by nanotubes