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

Portable quantum technologies require robust lightweight apparatus with superior performance. For techniques dependent upon high-vacuum environments, such as atom interferometers and atomic clocks, three-dimensional (3D) printing enables additional 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 nonevaporable getter coating for use as a surface pump, we show that the patterned surface pumps gas particles 3.8 times faster than 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 tenfold increase in the 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.