Final Activity Report Summary - QuTech (Molecular Electronics and Tunable Photonics for Quantum Technology)
The aim of the project was to integrate a third kind of technology within the AtomChip, namely molecular electronics. Although the AtomChip achieved miraculous firsts during the last 10 years, it became evident that using normal metallic conductors had disadvantages in the very delicate quantum world. Following several theoretical calculations by numerous groups worldwide, we set out to realise the first AtomChip device based on molecular conductors and specifically focussed on the carbon nano-tube (CNT). The CNT is a 10 nm wide conductor, self-assembled by the atoms themselves under appropriate conditions. It is therefore very pure in its chemical composition and geometrical structure. The main challenge when one attempts to integrate these tubes with conventional semi-conductor chips is that they need special conditions to grow, at times incompatible with the required conditions for other parts of the chip for which standard fabrication is used. Furthermore, it is hard to electrically connect to these conductors as the interface between normal metals and these tubes is complex. Finally, there is no good method for deterministically fixing the location and direction of this conductor.
We successfully simulated, designed and fabricated an AtomChip in which a CNT was integrated. The next step would be to actually test this new device with cold atoms.