Ristroph, TrygveGoodsell, AnneGolovchenko, JeneHau, Lene2015-09-022005Ristroph, Trygve, Anne Goodsell, J. A. Golovchenko, and Lene Vestergaard Hau. 2005. “Detection and Quantized Conductance of Neutral Atoms Near a Charged Carbon Nanotube.” Physical Review Letters 94 (6) (February). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.94.066102.0031-9007http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:21976374We describe a novel single atom detector that uses the high electric field surrounding a charged single-walled carbon nanotube to attract and subsequently field-ionize neutral atoms. A theoretical study of the field-ionization tunneling rates for atomic trajectories in the attractive potential near a nanowire shows that a broadly applicable, high spatial resolution, low-power, neutral-atom detector with nearly 100% efficiency is realizable with present-day technology. Calculations also show that the system can provide the first opportunity to study quantized conductance phenomena when detecting cold neutral atoms with mean velocities less than 15 m/s.en-USJournal Article2015-09-0210.1103/PhysRevLett.94.066102