Model for organized current patterns in disordered conductors

We present a general theory of current deviations in straight current-carrying wires with random imperfections, which quantitatively explains the recent observations of organized patterns of magnetic field corrugations above micrometer-scale evaporated wires. These patterns originate from the most efficient electron scattering by Fourier components of the wire imperfections with wavefronts along the 45° direction. We show that long-range effects of surface or bulk corrugations are suppressed for narrow wires or wires having an electrically anisotropic resistivity.

[1]  J. Schmiedmayer,et al.  Cold atoms close to surfaces: measuring magnetic field roughness and disorder potentials , 2005 .

[2]  J. Schmiedmayer,et al.  Long-Range Order in Electronic Transport Through Disordered Metal Films , 2008, Science.

[3]  I. Bouchoule,et al.  Role of wire imperfections in micromagnetic traps for atoms (4 pages) , 2004 .

[4]  S. Hofferberth,et al.  Potential roughness near lithographically fabricated atom chips , 2007 .

[5]  E. Hinds,et al.  Spin coupling between cold atoms and the thermal fluctuations of a metal surface. , 2003, Physical review letters.

[6]  I. Lesanovsky,et al.  Sensing electric and magnetic fields with Bose-Einstein condensates , 2006 .

[7]  J. Ziman,et al.  In: Electrons and Phonons , 1961 .

[8]  D Kielpinski,et al.  Propagation of Bose-Einstein condensates in a magnetic waveguide. , 2002, Physical review letters.

[9]  Atom chips in the real world: the effects of wire corrugation , 2004, physics/0407094.

[10]  M. Shatzkes,et al.  Electrical-Resistivity Model for Polycrystalline Films: the Case of Arbitrary Reflection at External Surfaces , 1970 .

[11]  M. Isichenko.  Percolation, statistical topography, and transport in random media , 1992 .

[12]  József Fortágh,et al.  Magnetic microtraps for ultracold atoms , 2007 .

[13]  Mikhail D Lukin,et al.  Disordered Bose-Einstein condensates in quasi-one-dimensional magnetic microtraps. , 2004, Physical review letters.

[14]  I. Bar-Joseph,et al.  Atom chips: Fabrication and thermal properties , 2004 .

[15]  Jörg Schmiedmayer,et al.  Bose–Einstein condensates: Microscopic magnetic-field imaging , 2005, Nature.

[16]  J. Schmiedmayer,et al.  Microscopic atom optics: from wires to an atom chip , 2008, 0805.2613.