2012/05/31 by B. Jetter, J. Märkle, P. Schneeweiss +9 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Absorption (acoustics) #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic physics #Carbon nanotube #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Materials science #Nanotechnology #Nanotube #Optics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum mechanics #Reflection (computer programming) #Scattering #Scattering rate #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #Thermal #Thermodynamics #Ultracold atom #cond-mat.quant-gas #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/15/7/073009
published as New J. Phys. 15, 073009 (2013) · 7 pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 2013/07/02 · arxiv created 2013/07/23 · arxiv updated 2013/07/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We investigate theoretically how cold atoms, including Bose–Einstein condensates, are scattered from, or absorbed by, nanotubes with a view to analysing recent experiments. In particular, we consider the role of potential strength, quantum reflection, atomic interactions and tube vibrations on atom loss rates. Lifshitz theory calculations deliver a significantly stronger scattering potential than that found in experiment and we discuss possible reasons for this. We found that the scattering potential for dielectric tubes can be calculated to a good approximation using a modified pairwise summation approach, which is efficient and easily extendable to arbitrary geometries. Quantum reflection of atoms from a nanotube may become a significant factor at low temperatures, especially for non-metallic tubes. Interatomic interactions are shown to increase the rate at which atoms are lost to the nanotube and lead to non-trivial dynamics. Thermal nanotube vibrations do not significantly increase loss rates or reduce condensate fractions, but lower frequency oscillations can dramatically heat the cloud.