Fifteen Years of Cold Matter on the Atom Chip: Promise, Realizations, and Prospects

TL;DR

This review covers fifteen years of advancements in atom chip technology, highlighting achievements in Bose-Einstein Condensates, matter-wave interferometry, surface probing, and emerging applications, demonstrating the field's rapid progress and future potential.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the development, achievements, and future prospects of atom chips in cold matter research over fifteen years.

Findings

High-rate BEC production at several per second

Implementation of matter-wave interferometry

Development of surface probing techniques

Abstract

Here we review the field of atom chips in the context of Bose-Einstein Condensates (BEC) as well as cold matter in general. Twenty years after the first realization of the BEC and fifteen years after the realization of the atom chip, the latter has been found to enable extraordinary feats: from producing BECs at a rate of several per second, through the realization of matter-wave interferometry, and all the way to novel probing of surfaces and new forces. In addition, technological applications are also being intensively pursued. This review will describe these developments and more, including new ideas which have not yet been realized.