Abstract
Recent advances in the preparation, control and measurement of atomic gases have led to new insights into the quantum world and unprecedented metrological sensitivities, e.g. in measuring gravitational forces and magnetic fields. The full potential of applying such capabilities to areas as diverse as biomedical imaging, non-invasive underground mapping, and GPS-free navigation can only be realised with the scalable production of efficient, robust and portable devices. We introduce additive manufacturing as a production technique of quantum device components with unrivalled design freedom and rapid prototyping. This provides a step change in efficiency, compactness and facilitates systems integration. As a demonstrator we present an ultrahigh vacuum compatible ultracold atom source dissipating less than ten milliwatts of electrical power during field generation to produce large samples of cold rubidium gases. This disruptive technology opens the door to drastically improved integrated structures, which will further reduce size and assembly complexity in scalable series manufacture of bespoke portable quantum devices.
Highlights
The current expansion in the field of quantum technologies and in particular quantum sensors has given rise to notable strides forward in device sensitivities with applications ranging from satellite independent navigation to non-invasive biomedical imaging[1,2]
Recent work has focused on the exploitation of quantum phenomena in compact out-of-laboratory devices based on latest advances in micro-manufacturing technology including optical and electron beam lithography[3], waveguide writing[4] and reactive ion beam etching[5]
Current miniaturised traps used for magnetic trapping within large integrated systems for Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) production have been conventionally machined[23] restricting scalability in manufacture
Summary
The current expansion in the field of quantum technologies and in particular quantum sensors has given rise to notable strides forward in device sensitivities with applications ranging from satellite independent navigation to non-invasive biomedical imaging[1,2]. Recent work has focused on the exploitation of quantum phenomena in compact out-of-laboratory devices based on latest advances in micro-manufacturing technology including optical and electron beam lithography[3], waveguide writing[4] and reactive ion beam etching[5]. These developments have enabled integrated atom chip based systems[6,7] and commercial development of complete systems on a vehicle payload scale[8,9,10]. We report here the design, manufacture and characterisation of the key performance properties of our prototype
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call