Exploiting complex 3D-printed surface structures for portable quantum technologies

Abstract: Portable quantum technologies require robust, lightweight apparatus with superior performance. For techniques dependent upon high-vacuum environments, such as atom interferometers and atomic clocks, 3D-printing enables new avenues to tailor in-vacuum gas propagation dynamics. We demonstrate intricate, fine-scale surface patterning of 3D-printed vacuum components to increase the rate at which gas particles collide with the surface. By applying a non-evaporable getter coating for use as a surface pump, we show that the patterned surface pumps gas particles 3.8 times faster than an equivalent flat areas. These patterns can be directly integrated into additively manufactured components, enabling application in close proximity to key experimental regions and contributing to overall mass-reduction. We develop numerical simulations that show good agreement with this result and predict up to a ten-fold increase in pumping rate, for realistic surface structures. Our work has direct applications in enabling passively-pumped portable quantum technologies, but also establishes 3D-printing as a powerful technique for the creation of optimized surface patterning to provide enhanced control over high-vacuum gas dynamics for a broad range of applications.