NIRT: Next Generation Atom Chips for Quantum Information Technology

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This proposal was received in response to the Nanoscale Science and Engineering initiative, NSF 01-157, category NIRT. The work focuses on the exploration of a new paradigm for a quantum information and storage device, the atom chip. In this paradigm, neutral atoms are suspended above nanofabricated current carrying structures. This work will advance the atom chip concept by investigating two important new technologies for introduction into atom chips: (1) to use superconducting materials in atom chip devices and (2) to investigate means and methods for the creation and control of Rydberg atoms confined on atom chips. In this component of the research the atom chips will be used to study the nano-science of the atom-surface interaction and to explore how they may be used for nano-technology. For application to quantum information, the work on atom chips will address two strategies: First, the use of atomic ensembles and collective atomic states, such as a BEC and, secondly, the use of single atom quantum control. In order to accomplish the goals of the project a three-member interdisciplinary team spanning three academic departments at the University of Rochester has been assembled. This award is jointly funded by the Divisions of Physics and Materials Research in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate and the Division of Computer-Communications Research in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.