Proposed magnetoelectrostatic ring trap for neutral atoms

We propose a trap for confining cold neutral atoms in a microscopic ring using a magnetoelectrostatic potential. The trapping potential is derived from a combination of a repulsive magnetic field from a hard drive atom mirror and the attractive potential produced by a charged disk patterned on the hard drive surface. We calculate a trap frequency of [29.7,42.6,62.8] kHz and a depth of [16.1,21.8,21.8] MHz for [¹³³Cs, ⁸⁷Rb, ⁴⁰K], and discuss a simple loading scheme and a method for fabrication. This device provides a one-dimensional potential in a ring geometry that may be of interest to the study of trapped quantum degenerate one-dimensional gases.