Los Alamos National Laboratory development could give new window into quantum interactions

A development from the Los Alamos National Laboratory promises to provide new insights into what occurs at the quantum level and may have further applications in ultrasensitive rotational measurements and quantum computing.

The atomtronic Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) created at Las Alamos varies from a conventional SQUID in that neutral atoms are used instead of charged electrons, Changhyun Ryu, a physicist with the Material Physics and Applications Quantum group at Los Alamos, said in a press release from Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

“Instead of responding to magnetic fields, the atomtronic version of a SQUID is sensitive to mechanical rotation,” he said in the press release. 

The prototype atomtronic SQUID is approximately ten millionths of a meter across. 

It's  created by trapping cold atoms, “in a sheet of laser light,” Los Alamos said in the press release. “A second laser intersecting the sheet “painted” patterns that guided the atoms into two semicircles separated by small gaps known as Josephson Junctions.”

Researchers indicated the concept still has a long way to go in development, but hope that scaling the device could lead to practical applications.