Two-wire waveguide and interferometer for cold atoms

A versatile miniature de Broglie waveguide is formed by two parallel curren t-carrying wires in the presence of a uniform bias field. We derive a varie ty of analytical expressions to describe the guide and present a quantum th eory to show that it offers a remarkable range of possibilities for atom ma nipulation on the submicron scale. These include controlled and coherent sp litting of the wave function as well as cooling, trapping, and guiding. In particular, we discuss a novel microscopic atom interferometer with the pot ential to be exceedingly sensitive.