James Martin, University of Waterloo
Abstract
"Atom chips" allow the manipulation of ultra-cold laser cooled atoms using micro fabricated wire structures. Current carrying wires on the chip surface generate inhomogeneous magnetic fields, allowing cold atoms to be held by the same forces as those in the famous Stern-Gerlach experiment. By varying the wire currents atoms can be squeezed into small volumes, and put at specific distances relative to surfaces.
I will discuss our work at Waterloo using atom chips and Rydberg atoms to study: 1) the electric-field surface noise that limits ion-trap based quantum computing, and 2) the development of new "hybrid" quantum systems, that will combine the benefits of gas-phase neutral atoms with the scalability and strong interactions of condensed matter systems.
Work done in collaboration with J. Carter, L. Jones and O. Cherry.