MIEDFAM · Micromanipulation of intern-extern degrees of freedom of mesoscopic atomic ensembles

Final Activity Report Summary - MIEDFAM (Micromanipulation of intern-extern degrees of freedom of mesoscopic atomic ensembles.)

Quantum physics is fundamental for our understanding of nature, and consequently at the centre of the development of new methods and technologies. In recent years it became evident that quantum physics in itself can have fare reaching implications. For example, the concept of a quantum bit, contrasted to the classical bit, forces us to redefine our ways of classifying logical operations and consequently computational and logical problems. A robust technological implementation of quantum physics has the potential to become one of the defining technologies of the 21st century. Such a quantum technology would be qualitatively distinct from the technologies that are currently available, since many of them are based on quantum phenomena, but the technology itself is firmly rooted within the world of classical physics. Today quantum physics itself mostly consists of basic research. Devices and applications are in general governed by classical physics, even though their basis is often in the quantum world, with a potential exception being the quantum communication. Quantum physics is confined to its own world, separated by deserts of classical physics. For quantum physics to emerge from fundamental research, one of the main challenges is how to link different quantum systems to each other while preserving the quantum nature over the link. One has to be able to quantum interconnect the different domains. A robust technological basis for such hybrid quantum systems is not currently available. The work in MIEDFAM uncovered an important link between the atomic physics quantum world and the solid state superconducting quantum circuits. By developing our understanding of radio frequency and microwave manipulation of ultra cold atoms we developed a way to achieve strong magnetic coupling of spin wave excitations, i.e. of a collective state qubit, to the microwave photons in a coplanar waveguide resonator. The latter was used as a link between cooper pair box solid state qubits. Both systems could be integrated on an atom chip. A long distance would have to be covered from the physics concept to actual realisation. We went the first steps in this direction through the design of an experiment that would bring together the two technologies, i.e. superconducting quantum circuits and ultra cold atoms and Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC), on an atom chip.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union