Atom Chip Fabrication

This chapter overviews atom chip fabrication by discussing the challenges to be faced when starting to conceive and fabricate chips for the manipulation of atoms. It describes the various ingredients and the corresponding fabrication methods. The chapter focuses not only on the currently most active and successful areas - current carrying wires and integrated photonics, but also focuses on more visionary approaches, examples being superconducting chips or the manipulation of atoms with real nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes. It discusses the material engineering and fabrication of atom chips for the manipulation of neutral atoms, but the same concept of robustness and versatility through miniaturization and integration can also be applied to manipulate molecules, ions, or trapped electrons. Metallic wires, electrodes, or permanent magnets are the most commonly used structures on an atom chip. In lithography, a pattern is transferred into a layer of resist on the chip surface.