The first non-trivial atom circuit: Progress towards an atom SQUID
Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 08:01
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland have created the first nontrivial "atom circuit," a donut-shaped loop of ultracold gas atoms circulating in a current analogous to a ring of electrons in a superconducting wire. The circuit is "nontrivial" because it includes a circuit elementan adjustable barrier that controls the flow of atom current to specific allowed values. The newly published work was done at the Joint Quantum Institute, a NIST/UM collaboration.