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 excited currents in the absorbing solid and time-dependent image potentials due to elastic surface distortions (Rayleigh phonons). Estimates for the lifetime of the trap ground state a...

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 excited currents in the absorbing solid and time-dependent image potentials due to elastic surface distortions (Rayleigh phonons). Estimates for the lifetime of the trap ground state a...

We describe and analyse an RF-optical technique for exciting alkali atoms in an atomic beam to a specific high angular momentum Rydberg state. In the procedure the Rydberg states are dressed by an RF field and two optical photons are used to excite the dressed state that goes adiabatically into the desired Rydberg state as the RF field is turned off. We describe in detail the excitation of the ...

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 excited currents in the absorbing solid and time-dependent image potentials due to elastic surface distortions (Rayleigh phonons). Estimates for the lifetime of the trap ground state a...

An application of Molecular Dynamics computer simulation (MD) to the process of transport of water through a lipid bilayer membrane is described. The permeation process is far too slow to be modeled by straightforward MD. In stead the inverse of the permeability coefficient is expressed as an integral over a local permeation resistance, which itself is inversely proportional both to the local d...