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We discuss heating and decoherencw in traps fpr ions and neutral paricles close to metallic surfaces. We focus on simple trap geometries and compute noise spectra of thermally excited electromagnetic fields. If the trap is located in the near field of the substrate, the field fluctuations are largely increased compared to the level of the blackbody field, leading to much shorter coherence and life times of the trapped atoms. The correspinding time constants are computed for ion traps and magnetic traps. Analytical estimates for the size dependence of the noise spectrum are given. We finally discuss prospects for the coherent transport of matter waves in integrated surface waveguides.
We study the electromagnetic coupling and concomitant heating of a particle in a miniaturized trap close to a solid surface. Two dominant heating mechanisms are identified: proximity fields generated by thermally exicted currents in the absorbing solid and timedependent image potentials due to elastic surfaces distortions (Rayleigh phonons. Estimates for the lifetime of the trap ground state are given. Ions are paricularly sinsitive to electric proximity fields: for a silver substrate, we find a lifetime below one second at distrances closer than some ten 10^-6m to the surfaces. Neutral atoms may approach the surface more closely: if they have a magnetic moment, a minimum distance of one 10^-6m is estimatied in tight traps, the heat being transferred via magnetic proximity fields. For spinless atoms, heat is transferred by inelastic scattering of virtual photons off sorface phonons. The corresponding lifetime, however, is estimated to be extremely long compared to the timescale of typical experiments.
We derive the time and loss rate for a trapped atom that is coupled to fluctuating fields in the vicinity of a room-temperature metallic and/or dielectric surface. Our results indicate a clear predominance of near-field effects over ordinary blackbody radiation. We develop a theoretical framework for both charged ions and neutral atoms with and without spin. Loss processes that are due to a transition to an untrapped internal state are included.