System and method for creating a predetermined magnetic potential

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9510437-B1
Application number	US-201514692697-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Apr 21, 2015
Priority date	Apr 21, 2015
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

A method and system for algebraically generating precise magnetic potentials along the axis of a cold atom waveguide. Sets of paired conductors may provide control over the even and odd contributions of the polynomial potential along one axis of the trap. Various field configurations can be realized, including double wells, triple wells, and filtered harmonic traps with suppression of higher order terms. An example of a system disclosed herein may be a suitable dual-layer atom chip, with modest experimental requirements, that allows independent tuning of terms up to fourth order.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An atom chip device comprising:
a plurality of wires configured to control a potential in a first direction;
a waveguide configured to control the potential in a second direction; and
wherein the plurality wires are spaced a predetermined spacing distance apart from each other so that by adjusting currents in the plurality of wires the potential in the first and second directions can be tuned to produce a double well trap.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
the plurality of wires are arranged in wire pairs; and
the current can be independently adjusted for each of the wire pairs.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein:
the potential in the first direction is defined by a magnetic field comprised of harmonic, quartic and higher orders, and
the magnetic field is changeable by adjusting the current in each of the wire pairs.

4. The device of claim 2 , further comprising:
a polynomial model which calculates the potential and breaks the potential into harmonic, quartic, and higher orders that depend on the number and relative spacing of the wire pairs about an origin;
the potential being comprised of a contribution from each of the orders; and
a portion of the contribution from each of the orders is substantially cancelled.

5. The device of claim 4 , wherein the current to supply to each wire pair is calculated based on inverting a matrix constructed from the harmonic, quartic, and higher orders of the polynomial model.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of wires lie substantially in a common plane.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the waveguide lies substantially in a waveguide plane which is parallel to and spaced apart from the common plane.

8. The device of claim 1 , further configured to create a time orbit potential trap by rapidly adjusting the currents in the plurality of wires.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
the double well trap is comprised of two traps separated by a trap distance, with each of the two traps having a bottom and a bottom potential at the bottom;
a difference between the two bottom potentials; and
both the trap distance and the difference between the bottom potentials can be independently tuned.

10. A method of controlling atoms using an atom chip comprising:
adjusting currents in a plurality of wire pairs which
i) lie substantially in a common plane oriented normal to a waveguide plane including a waveguide; and
ii) are spaced a predetermined spacing distance apart according to a polynomial model so as to tune a magnitude and a direction of a potential to produce a double well trap.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
the plurality of wires are arranged in wire pairs; and
the currents can be independently adjusted for each of the wire pairs.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the polynomial model which calculates the potential is broken into its harmonic, quartic, and higher orders that depend on spacing of the wire pairs about an origin.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein:
the potential is comprised of a contribution from each of the orders, and further comprising:
spacing the plurality of wire pairs about the origin so that a portion of the contribution from each of the harmonic, quartic, and higher orders is substantially cancelled.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the current to supply to each wire pair is calculated based on inverting a matrix constructed from the harmonic, quartic, and higher orders of the polynomial model.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of wires are arranged in wire pairs to provide control over even and odd contributions to the polynomial model.

16. The device of claim 10 , wherein:
the double well trap is comprised of two traps separated by a trap distance, with each of the two traps having a bottom and a bottom potential at the bottom; and
both the trap distance and a difference between the bottom potentials can be independently tuned.

17. An apparatus for creating a magnetic potential having a variable shape, comprising:
a plurality of wires arranged as a plurality of wire pairs configured to control the magnetic potential in a first direction;
a waveguide positioned to control the magnetic potential in a second direction;
each of the wire pairs being comprised of two members lying in parallel;
each of the members being for conducting electric current; and
the electric current for each set of the wire pairs
being equal for each of the two members,
being independent of the electric current for the other wire pairs, and
being independently adjustable, whereby

the shape of the magnetic potential in the first direction is controlled by adjusting the respective electric currents in the wire pairs.

18. The apparatus as defined in claim 17 wherein:
the plurality of wires are parallel to one another and lie substantially in a common plane, and
the waveguide lying in a waveguide plane, which lies parallel to and spaced apart from the common plane.

19. The apparatus as defined in claim 17 wherein:
the two members of each of the wire pairs are spaced apart from each other by a spacing distance; and
the shape of the magnetic potential in the first direction is further controlled by adjusting the spacing distance.

20. The apparatus as defined in claim 17 wherein:
the wire pairs are comprised of odd wire pairs and even wire pairs; and
the members of each of the odd wire pairs being for having the current flowing in a first direction and the members of each of the even wire pairs being for having the current flowing in opposite directions.

Assignees

• Squires Matthew B
• Stickney James A
• Kasch Brian
• Us Air Force

Inventors

• Squires Matthew B
• Stickney James A
• Kasch Brian

Classifications

• G21K1/30

  for confining neutral particles or handling confined neutral particles, e.g. atom traps · CPC title

• H05H3/04 Primary

  Acceleration by electromagnetic wave pressure · CPC title

• H05H3/02 Primary

  Molecular or atomic-beam generation, e.g. resonant beam generation · CPC title