Controllable double-well magneto-optic atom trap with a circular current-carrying wire

Abstract

We propose a controllable double-well magneto-optic trap (MOT) for neutral atoms that uses a circular current-carrying wire and a biased magnetic field. One can cause the proposed double-well trap to evolve continually into a single-well trap by reducing the current in the wire or increasing the bias field. We estimate that in a weak intensity approximation a cold atomic sample with a temperature of approximately 300 K and a number of approximately 10(6) atoms can be stored in each MOT. One can control the number of trapped atoms by changing the current in the wire.