Box traps on an atom chip for one-dimensional quantum gases

J J P van Es (1) , P Wicke (1) , a H van Amerongen (1) , C Rétif (2) , S Whitlock (1) , N J van Druten (1)

1 Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute
2 AMOLF - FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics

We present the implementation of tailored trapping potentials for ultracold gases on an atom chip. We realize highly elongated traps with box-like confinement along the long, axial direction combined with conventional harmonic confinement along the two radial directions. The design, fabrication and characterization of the atom chip and the box traps is described. We load ultracold (? 1 µK) clouds of 87 Rb in a box trap, and demonstrate Bose-gas focusing as a means to characterize these atomic clouds in arbitrarily shaped potentials. Our results show that box-like axial potentials on atom chips are very promising for studies of onedimensional quantum gases.

Mots clés: 03.75.Be; 05.30.Jp; 67.85.-d

J J P van Es, P Wicke, a H van Amerongen, C Rétif, S Whitlock, et al.. Box traps on an atom chip for one-dimensional quantum gases. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 2010, 43 (15), pp.155002. ⟨10.1088/0953-4075/43/15/155002⟩. ⟨hal-00630007⟩