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Fabricating atom chips with femtosecond laser ablation

C H Wolff, S Whitlock, R M Lowe, A I Sidorov and B V Hall

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We report on the microfabrication of atom chips using a femtosecond laser ablation technique to arbitrarily sculpture both thin conductive metal films and permanent magnetic materials. We have measured the threshold fluences for a variety of materials relevant to atom chip development (Au, Ag, Cu, Cr, Ni, TbGdFeCo, SmCo, CoCr). The quality of the ablation process is investigated by extracting the power spectral density of the edge roughness from composite scanning electron microscope images and through the use of a magnetoresistance microscope to measure the associated magnetic field noise. Finally, we present results from a sculptured wire which produces an array of tunable double wells designed for near-surface force sensing with Bose–Einstein condensates.


PACS

42.62.-b Laser applications

68.35.B- Structure of clean surfaces (and surface reconstruction)

68.37.Hk Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (including EBIC)

03.75.Be Atom and neutron optics

68.55.-a Thin film structure and morphology

Subjects

Quantum gases, liquids and solids

Surfaces, interfaces and thin films

Optics, quantum optics and lasers

Dates

Issue 8 (28 April 2009)

Received 3 February 2009

Published 9 April 2009



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