This thesis outlines the fabrication of two atom chips for the study of interactions between ⁸⁷Rb Rydberg atoms and a Au surface. Atom chips yield tightly confined, cold samples of an atomic species by generating magnetic fields with high gradients using microfabricated current-carrying wires. These ground state atoms may in turn be excited to Rydberg states. The trapping wires of Chip 1 are fabricated using thermally evaporated Cr/Au and patterned using lift-off photolithography. Chip 2 uses a Ti/Pd/Au tri-layer, instead of Cr/Au, to minimize interdiffusion. The chip has a thermally evaporated Au surface layer for Rydberg atom-surface interactions, which is separated from the underlying trapping wires by a planarizing polyimide dielectric. The polyimide was patterned using reactive ion etching. Special attention was paid to the edge roughness and electrical properties of the trapping wires, the planarization of the polyimide, and the grain structure of the Au surface.

This thesis outlines the fabrication of two atom chips for the study of interactions between ⁸⁷Rb Rydberg atoms and a Au surface. Atom chips yield tightly confined, cold samples of an atomic species by generating magnetic fields with high gradients using microfabricated current-carrying wires. These ground state atoms may in turn be excited to Rydberg states. The trapping wires of Chip 1 are fabricated using thermally evaporated Cr/Au and patterned using lift-off photolithography. Chip 2 uses a Ti/Pd/Au tri-layer, instead of Cr/Au, to minimize interdiffusion. The chip has a thermally evaporated Au surface layer for Rydberg atom-surface interactions, which is separated from the underlying trapping wires by a planarizing polyimide dielectric. The polyimide was patterned using reactive ion etching. Special attention was paid to the edge roughness and electrical properties of the trapping wires, the planarization of the polyimide, and the grain structure of the Au surface.

This thesis reports experimental observations of electric fields using Rydberg atoms, including dc field measurements near the surface of an atom chip, and demonstration of measurement techniques for ac fields far from the surface. Associated theoretical results are also presented, including Monte Carlo simulations of the decoherence of Rydberg states in electric field noise as well as an analytical calculation of the statistics of dc electric field inhomogeneity near polycrystalline metal surfaces. DC electric fields were measured near the heterogeneous metal and dielectric surface of an atom chip using optical spectroscopy on cold atoms released from the trapping potential. The fields were attributed to charges accumulating in the dielectric gaps between the wires on the chip surface. The field magnitude and direction depend on the details of the dc biasing of the chip wires, suggesting that fields may be minimized with appropriate biasing. Techniques to measure ac electric fields were demonstrated far from the chip surface, using the decay of a coherent superposition of two Rydberg states of cold atoms. We have used the decay of coherent Rabi oscillations to place some bounds on the magnitude and frequency dependence of ac field noise. The rate of decoherence of a superposition of two Rydberg states was calculated with Monte Carlo simulations. The states were assumed to have quadratic Stark shifts and the power spectrum of the electric field noise was assumed to have a power-law dependence of the form 1/f^κ. The decay is exponential at long times for both free evolution of the superposition and and Hahn spin-echo sequences with a π refocusing pulse applied to eliminate the effects of low-frequency field noise. This decay time may be used to calculate the magnitude of the field noise if κ is known. The dc field inhomogeneity near polycrystalline metal surfaces due to patch potentials on the surface has been calculated, and the rms field scales with distance to the surface as 1/z^2. For typical evaporated metal surfaces the magnitude of the rms field is comparable to the image field of an elementary charge near the surface.

This thesis reports experimental observations of electric fields using Rydberg atoms, including dc field measurements near the surface of an atom chip, and demonstration of measurement techniques for ac fields far from the surface. Associated theoretical results are also presented, including Monte Carlo simulations of the decoherence of Rydberg states in electric field noise as well as an analytical calculation of the statistics of dc electric field inhomogeneity near polycrystalline metal surfaces. DC electric fields were measured near the heterogeneous metal and dielectric surface of an atom chip using optical spectroscopy on cold atoms released from the trapping potential. The fields were attributed to charges accumulating in the dielectric gaps between the wires on the chip surface. The field magnitude and direction depend on the details of the dc biasing of the chip wires, suggesting that fields may be minimized with appropriate biasing. Techniques to measure ac electric fields were demonstrated far from the chip surface, using the decay of a coherent superposition of two Rydberg states of cold atoms. We have used the decay of coherent Rabi oscillations to place some bounds on the magnitude and frequency dependence of ac field noise. The rate of decoherence of a superposition of two Rydberg states was calculated with Monte Carlo simulations. The states were assumed to have quadratic Stark shifts and the power spectrum of the electric field noise was assumed to have a power-law dependence of the form 1/f^κ. The decay is exponential at long times for both free evolution of the superposition and and Hahn spin-echo sequences with a π refocusing pulse applied to eliminate the effects of low-frequency field noise. This decay time may be used to calculate the magnitude of the field noise if κ is known. The dc field inhomogeneity near polycrystalline metal surfaces due to patch potentials on the surface has been calculated, and the rms field scales with distance to the surface as 1/z^2. For typical evaporated metal surfaces the magnitude of the rms field is comparable to the image field of an elementary charge near the surface.

Microfabricated solid-state surfaces, also called atom chip', have become a well-established technique to trap and manipulate atoms. This has simplified applications in atom interferometry, quantum information processing, and studies of many-body systems. Magnetic trapping potentials with arbitrary geommetries are generated with atom chip by miniaturized current-carrying conductors integrated on a solid substrate. Atoms can be trapped and cooled to microKelvin and even nanoKelvin temperatures in such microchip trap. However, cold atoms can be significantly perturbed by the chip surface, typically held at room temperature. The magnetic field fluctuations generated by thermal currents in the chip elements may induce spin flips of atoms and result in loss, heating and decoherence. In this thesis, we extend previous work on spin flip rates induced by magnetic noise and consider the more complex geometries that are typically encountered in atom chips: layered structures and metallic wires of finite cross-section. We also discuss a few aspects of atom chips traps built with superconducting structures that have been suggested as a means to suppress magnetic field fluctuations. The thesis describes calculations of spin flip rates based on magnetic Green functions that are computed analytically and numerically. For a chip with a top metallic layer, the magnetic noise depends essentially on the thickness of that layer, as long as the layers below have a much smaller conductivity. Based on this result, scaling laws for loss rates above a thin metallic layer are derived. A good agreement with experiments is obtained in the regime where the atom-surface distance is comparable to the skin depth of metal. Since in the experiments, metallic layers are always etched to separate wires carrying different currents, the impact of the finite lateral wire size on the magnetic noise has been taken into account. The local spectrum of the magnetic field near a metallic microstructure has been investigated numerically with the help of boundary integral equations. The magnetic noise significantly depends on polarizations above flat wires with finite lateral width, in stark contrast to an infinitely wide wire. Correlations between multiple wires are also taken into account. In the last part, superconducting atom chips are considered. Magnetic traps generated by superconducting wires in the Meissner state and the mixed state are studied analytically by a conformal mapping method and also numerically. The properties of the traps created by superconducting wires are investigated and compared to normal conducting wires: they behave qualitatively quite similar and open a route to further trap miniaturization, due to the advantage of low magnetic noise. We discuss critical currents and fields for several geometries. / Mikrotechnologische Oberflächen, sogenannte Atomchips, sind eine etablierte Methode zum Speichern und Manipulieren von Atomen geworden. Das hat Anwendungen in der Atom-Interferometrie, Quanteninformationsverarbeitung und Vielteilchensystemen vereinfacht. Magnetische Fallenpotentiale mit beliebigen Geometrien werden durch Atomchips mit miniaturisierten stromführenden Leiterbahnen auf einer Festkörperunterlage realisiert. Atome können bei Temperaturen im $mu$ K oder sogar nK-Bereich in einer solchen Falle gespeichert und gekühlt werden. Allerdings können kalte Atome signifikant durch die Chip-Oberfläche gestört werden, die sich typischerweise auf Raumtemperatur befindet. Die durch thermische Ströme im Chip erzeugten magnetischen Feldfluktuationen können Spin-Flips der Atome induzieren und Verlust, Erwärmung und Dekohärenz zur Folge haben. In dieser Dissertation erweitern wir frühere Arbeiten über durch magnetisches Rauschen induzierte Spin-Flip-Ratenund betrachten kompliziertere Geometrien, wie sie typischerweise auf einem Atom-Chip anzutreffen sind: Geschichtete Strukturen und metallische Leitungen mit endlichem Querschnitt. Wir diskutieren auch einige Aspekte von Aomchips aus Supraleitenden Strukturen die als Mittel zur Unterdrückung magnetischer Feldfluktuationen vorgeschlagen wurden. Die Arbeit beschreibt analytische und numerische Rechnungen von Spin-Flip Raten auf Grundlage magnetischer Greensfunktionen. Für einen Chip mit einem metallischen Top-Layer hängt das magnetische Rauschen hauptsächlich von der Dicke des Layers ab, solange die unteren Layer eine deutlich kleinere Leitfähigkeit haben. Auf Grundlage dieses Ergebnisses werden Skalengesetze für Verlustraten über einem dünnen metallischen Leiter hergeleitet. Eine gute Übereinstimmung mit Experimenten wird in dem Bereich erreicht, wo der Abstand zwischen Atom und Oberfläche in der Größenordnung der Eindringtiefe des Metalls ist. Da in Experimenten metallische Layer immer geätzt werden, um verschiedene stromleitende Bahnen vonenander zu trennen, wurde der Einfluß eines endlichen Querschnittsauf das magnetische Rauschen berücksichtigt. Das lokale Spektrum des magnetischen Feldes in der Nähe einer metallischen Mikrostruktur wurde mit Hilfe von Randintegralen numerisch untersucht. Das magnetische Rauschen hängt signifikant von der Polarisierung über flachen Leiterbahnen mit endlichem Querschnitt ab, im Unterschied zu einem unendlich breiten Leiter. Es wurden auch Korrelationen zwischen mehreren Leitern berücksichtigt. Im letzten Teil werden supraleitende Atomchips betrachtet. Magnetische Fallen, die von supraleitenden Bahnen im Meissner Zustand und im gemischten Zustand sind werden analytisch durch die Methode der konformen Abbildung und numerisch untersucht. Die Eigenschaften der durch supraleitende Bahnen erzeugten Fallen werden erforscht und mit normal leitenden verglichen: Sie verhalten sich qualitativ sehr ähnlich und öffnen einen Weg zur weiteren Miniaturisierung von Fallen, wegen dem Vorteil von geringem magnetischem Rauschen. Wir diskutieren kritische Ströme und Felder für einige Geometrien.

Ultra-kalte atomare Gase werden in zahlreichen Laboren weltweit untersucht und finden unter anderem Anwendung in Atomuhren und in Atominterferometer. Die Einsatzgebiete erstrecken sich von der Geodäsie über die Metrologie bis hin zu wichtigen Fragestellungen der Fundamentalphysik, wie z.B. Tests des Äquivalenzprinzips. Doch die beispiellose Messgenauigkeit ist durch die irdische Gravitation eingeschränkt. Zum einen verzerrt die Schwerkraft das Fallenpotential und macht damit die Reduktion der atomaren Energie unter einem bestimmten Limit unmöglich. Zum anderen werden die aus einer Falle frei gelassenen Teilchen durch die Erdanziehung beschleunigt und so ist deren Beobachtungszeit begrenzt. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden die Ergebnisse des Projektes QUANTUS (Quantengase Unter Schwerelosigkeit) dargestellt. Auf dem Weg zur Implementierung eines Quantengasexperimentes im Weltraum wurde innerhalb einer deutschlandweiten Zusammenarbeit eine kompakte, portable und mechanisch stabile Apparatur zur Erzeugung und Untersuchung eines Bose-Einstein-Kondensats (BEC) unter Schwerelosigkeit im Fallturm Bremen entwickelt. Sowohl die Abbremsbeschleunigung von bis zu 50 g als auch das begrenzte Volumen der Fallkapsel stellen hohe Ansprüche an die mechanische Stabilität und die Miniaturisierung von optischen und elektronischen Komponenten. Der Aufbau besteht aus einer im ultra-hoch Vakuum geschlossenen magnetischen Mikrofalle (Atomchip) und einem kompakten auf DFB-Dioden basierenden Lasersystem. Mit diesem Aufbau ließ sich das erste BEC unter Schwerelosigkeit realisieren und nach 1 Sekunde freier Expansion zu beobachten. Weder die schwache Krümmung des Fallenpotentials noch die lange Beobachtungszeit würden in einem erdgebundenen Experiment realisierbar. Die erfolgreiche Umsetzung des Projektes eröffnet ein innovatives Forschungsgebiet - degenerierte Quantengase bei ultratiefen Temperaturen im pK-Bereich, mit großen freien Evolutions- und Beobachtungszeiten von mehreren Sekunden. / Recently, cooling, trapping and manipulation of neutral atoms and ions has become an especially active field of quantum physics. The main motivation for the cooling is to reduce motional effects in high precision measurements including spectroscopy, atomic clocks and matter interferometry. The spectrum of applications of these quantum devices cover a broad area from geodesy, through metrology up to addressing the fundamental questions in physics, as for instance testing the Einstein’s equivalence principle. However, the unprecedented precision of the quantum sensors is limited in terrestial laboratories. Freezing atomic motion can be nowadays put to the limit at which gravity becomes a major perturbation in a system. Gravity can significantly affect and disturb the trapping potential. This limits the use of ultra-shallow traps for low energetic particles. Moreover, free particles are accelerated by gravitational force, which substantially limits the observation time. Targeting the long-term goal of studying cold quantum gases on a space platform, we currently focus on the implementation of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) experiment under microgravity conditions at the drop tower in Bremen. Special challenges in the construction of the experimental setup are posed by a low volume of the drop capsule as well as critical decelerations up to 50g during recapture at the bottom of the tower. All mechanical and electronic components were thus been designed with stringent demands on miniaturization and mechanical stability. This work reports on the observation of a BEC released from an ultra-shallow magnetic potential and freely expanding for one second. Both, the low trapping frequency and long expansion time are not achievable in any earthbound laboratory. This unprecedented time of free evolution leads to new possibilities for the study of BEC-coherence. It can also be applied to enhance the sensitivity of inertial quantum sensors based on ultra-cold matter waves.

L'interférométrie atomique a démontré sa capacité à effectuer des mesures de grande précision, notamment pour la réalisation de capteurs inertiels, les tests de physique fondamentale ou la mesure de constantes fondamentales. Une piste pour l'amélioration de la sensibilité des interféromètres atomiques est la réduction de la dispersion en vitesse de la source en utilisant un ensemble d'atomes ultra-froids pour augmenter le temps d'interrogation des atomes et accroitre la séparation spatiale entre les bras de l'interféromètre. Un nouvel interféromètre atomique à bras séparés est en construction au Laboratoire Collisions Agrégats et Réactivité de Toulouse. Ce dispositif répond à deux objectifs. Premièrement sa conception a pour but l'étude et le développement de nouveaux types de sources de condensat de Bose-Einstein (C.B.E.) double espèce de rubidium 85 et 87 adaptées à l'interférométrie. Cette source de C.B.E. repose sur l'utilisation de puces pour la manipulation et le refroidissement des atomes. Cette technologie est compacte et consomment peu d'énergie, ce qui est adaptée aux applications spatiales. L'autre objectif est d'utiliser cet interféromètre pour tester la neutralité de la matière via l'effet Aharonov-Bohm scalaire. Dans ce manuscrit je commence par exposer et justifer les choix techniques fait lors du dimensionnement et de la construction de la source de C.B.E. double isotopes. Par la suite, je présente les premiers résultats expérimentaux accompagnés de simulations numériques et d'explications théoriques. Lors de la première étape de refroidissement laser nous produisons un nuage de rubidium 87 et 85 contenant 4 × 10^10 atomes à une température de 10 µK avec un taux de cycle de 1 s. A la suite du refroidissement laser 8 × 10^9 atomes sont chargés dans le piège magnétique millimétrique de surface. Différentes expériences de caractérisation sont réalisées et expliquées à la lumières de simulations numériques. L'étude des fréquences de piégeage et de la profondeur a révélé les limites du premier prototype de piège millimétrique que nous avons réalisé au laboratoire. Cependant ces développements expérimentaux et théoriques servent à développer et implémenter dans le dispositif une nouvelle génération de puce à échelle micrométrique. / Atom interferometry has shown its interest for high precision measurements, such as inertial sensors, tests of fundamental physics or fundamental constant measurements. A way to improve sensitivity of such device is to reduce speed dispersion of the atomic cloud. The use of ultra-cold atoms allows increasing the interogation time of atoms and the spatial separation between the interferometer arms. The building of a new atom interferometer with separated arms is ongoing in the laboratory "Collisions Agrégats et Réactivité" at Toulouse. This new setup must meet two objectives. One aim of its conception is to study and develop a new kind of double species Bose-Einstein condensate (B.E.C.) source for atom interferometry with rubidium 87 and 85. This B.E.C. source relies on atom chip technology to cool down and manipulate atoms. This technology is compact and low power consuming, therefore suitable for transportable applications in space. A second aim is to use this interferometer to fix new boundary on the experimental value of atom neutrality thanks to the scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect. In this manuscript I start by exposing and justifying technical choices made for the design of the double isotope B.E.C. source. Then I present the first experimental results compared with numerical simulations and theoretical explanations. During the first laser cooling stage we produce a cloud including 4 × 10^10 rubidium atoms of both isotopes (87 and 85) at 10 µK. This operation can be repeated every second. Following the laser cooling 8×10^9 atoms are loaded into a millimeter sized magnetic trap. Various experiments were performed to characterize the trap. Studies of the trap frequency and depth revealed the limitations of this first prototype. However these theoretical and experimental developments led to design and future implementation of a new generation of micro-chip in our apparatus.

A system suitable for studying interactions between ⁸⁷Rb Rydberg atoms and metal surfaces has been constructed. This thesis describes the design and construction of the apparatus, and some test results. Atoms in a vapor cell magneto-optical trap are transferred to a macroscopic Ioffe-Pritchard trap, where they will be RF evaporatively cooled and loaded into a magnetic microtrap (atom chip). Confinement of cold clouds at controllable distances (5–200 μm)} from a metal surface is possible. The effects of atom-surface interactions can be studied with Rydberg atom spectroscopy. Some functionality of the apparatus has been demonstrated. Approximately 1.5×10⁷ atoms were loaded into a mirror MOT, and about 6×10⁶ atoms were optically pumped to the |F=2, m_F=2> hyperfine ground state and confined in a macroscopic Ioffe-Pritchard trap. The temperature of the cloud in the trap was 42 ± 5 μK, and the 1/e lifetime is 1–1.5 s. Forced RF evaporation has been used to measure the magnetic field at the trap minimum, but RF evaporative cooling has not yet been demonstrated.

A system suitable for studying interactions between ⁸⁷Rb Rydberg atoms and metal surfaces has been constructed. This thesis describes the design and construction of the apparatus, and some test results. Atoms in a vapor cell magneto-optical trap are transferred to a macroscopic Ioffe-Pritchard trap, where they will be RF evaporatively cooled and loaded into a magnetic microtrap (atom chip). Confinement of cold clouds at controllable distances (5–200 μm)} from a metal surface is possible. The effects of atom-surface interactions can be studied with Rydberg atom spectroscopy. Some functionality of the apparatus has been demonstrated. Approximately 1.5×10⁷ atoms were loaded into a mirror MOT, and about 6×10⁶ atoms were optically pumped to the |F=2, m_F=2> hyperfine ground state and confined in a macroscopic Ioffe-Pritchard trap. The temperature of the cloud in the trap was 42 ± 5 μK, and the 1/e lifetime is 1–1.5 s. Forced RF evaporation has been used to measure the magnetic field at the trap minimum, but RF evaporative cooling has not yet been demonstrated.

In this thesis, we demonstrate the creation and characterization of multiparticle entangled states of neutral atoms with the help of a high finesse cavity. Our experimental setup consists of a fibre-based high finesse cavity above the surface of an atom chip. It allows us to prepare an ensemble of 87Rb atoms with well-defined atom number. The atoms are trapped in a single antinode of an intracavity standing wave dipole trap and are therefore all equally coupled to the cavity mode. We present a scheme based on a collective, quantum non-destructive (QND) measurement and conditional evolution to create symmetric entangled states and to analyze them at the single-particle level by directly measuring their Husimi Q function. We use this method to create and characterize W states of up to 41 atoms. From the tomography curve of the Q function, we reconstruct the symmetric part of the density matrix via different reconstruction techniques and obtain a fidelity of 0.42. Furthermore, we have devised an entanglement criterion which only relies on comparing two populations of the density matrix. We use it to infer the degree of multiparticle entanglement in our experimentally created states and find that the state with highest fidelity contains at least 13 entangled particles. In addition, we show preliminary results on experiments to count the atom number inside a cavity in the QND regime and to create entangled states via quantum Zeno dynamics.