QIP with trapped atoms
The world of physics was electrified by the discovery that an assembly of trapped atoms can be cooled to such low temperatures that they form a single quantum state - the long-sought ‘Bose-Einstein condensate’ (BEC). Now it has also been shown that, by interaction with light, the BEC state can in turn be manipulated into one with individual atoms in well-defined locations (a so-called ‘Mott insulator’). These single atoms would be ideal in many respects for quantum information processing, if they could be made to interact controllably with one another and the outside world. This project will do just that, by producing "atom chips" on which the atoms can be controlled and guided, and by studying the fundamental processes of interaction and measurement.
For further information please contact Chris Foot (
Diagram showing the guiding of trapped atoms into a controlling light beam on an "atom chip”.