Using magnetic chip traps to study Tonks-Girardeau quantum gases

Abstract

We discuss the use of microfabricated magnetic traps, or "chip traps," to study quasi-one-dimensional quantum gases. In particular, we discuss the feasibility of studying the Tonks-Girardeau limit, in which the gas is strongly interacting. We review the scaling of the oscillation frequencies of a chip trap, and show that it seems feasible to attain a Tonks-Girardeau parameter as large as 200. The primary difficulty of this approach is detection, since the strongly interacting limit occurs for low densities. We propose a way to "freeze" the distribution, and then measure it with a single-atom detector. This method can also be applied to optical dipole traps.