Physicsworld.com recently reported that researchers in the UK have developed a new method to trap atoms on a chip.
“Atom chips” allow for the study of ultracold atomic gases at temperatures just slightly above absolute zero. The new method is a promising development and allows researchers to capture cold atoms directly onto the atom chips from a room temperature gas of rubidium.
The secret to trapping the atoms is the integration of magneto-optical traps, which come in the form of pyramid-shaped structures etched into a silicon wafer. Joseph Cotter and colleagues at Imperial College, London, have found this method more successful than the previous method, where atoms were first cooled and then trapped far from the surface, which caused the atoms to be lost in many cases.
“The technique is much simpler than existing atom trapping methods and is the first observation of direct cold atom trapping from a background vapor inside a microfabricated structure on an atom chip,” Cotter told nanotechweb.org.
