Realization of a superconducting atom chip.
We have trapped rubidium atoms in the magnetic field produced by a superconducting atom chip operated at liquid helium temperatures. Up to 8.2x10(5) atoms are held in a Ioffe-Pritchard trap at a distance of 440 microm from the chip surface, with a temperature of 40 microK. The trap lifetime reaches 115 s at low atomic densities. These results open the way to the exploration of atom-surface interactions and coherent atomic transport in a superconducting environment, whose properties are radically different from normal metals at room temperature.
Nirrengarten
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Département de Physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
Qarry
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A
Roux
C
C
Emmert
A
A
Nogues
G
G
Brune
M
M
Raimond
J-M
JM
Haroche
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