Miniature Bose–Einstein condensate system design based on a transparent atom chip

We propose a new miniature Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) system based on a transparent atom chip with a compact external coil structure. A standard six-beam macroscopic magneto-optical trap (MOT) is able to be created near the chip surface due to the chip's transparency. A novel wire pattern consisting of a double-z wire and a z-shaped wire is designed on the transparent atom chip. With a vertical bias magnetic field, the double-z wire can create the quadrupole magnetic field of an intermediate chip MOT, which is suitable for transporting atoms from the macroscopic MOT to the chip z-wire trap efficiently. The compact external coil structure is designed with a rectangular frameless geometry consisting of only four coil pairs and its volume is less than 0.3 liters. The maximum system power consumption during the BEC generation procedure is about 45 W. The miniature system is evaluated, and about 3 × 10⁶ atoms can be loaded into the chip z-wire trap. The miniature chip BEC system has the advantages of small volume and low power consumption, and it has great potential for practical applications of BEC. (paper)