Atom chips: Coherence and single atoms
Dr. Jakob Reichel (ENS Paris)

With atom chips, atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) can be created and manipulated in close proximity to a solid-state surface. Over the last 3 years, the technique has proven its power by enabling fast and surprisingly simple BEC experiments. This makes atom chips a promising candidate for portable atom-optical sensors, such as gyroscopes and accelerometers. On the other hand, the association of BEC and nanotechnology provides a new, rich physical setting which we are only starting to explore. Aspects that I will discuss include mesoscopic BECs in nonperiodic potentials and BEC-nanodevice interaction.