  Contemporary experiments in cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED) with
gas-phase neutral atoms rely increasingly on laser cooling and optical,
magneto-optical or magnetostatic trapping methods to provide atomic
localization with sub-micron uncertainty. Difficult to achieve in free space,
this goal is further frustrated by atom-surface interactions if the desired
atomic placement approaches within several hundred nanometers of a solid
surface, as can be the case in setups incorporating monolithic dielectric
optical resonators such as microspheres, microtoroids, microdisks or photonic
crystal defect cavities. Typically in such scenarios, the smallest atom-surface
separation at which the van der Waals interaction can be neglected is taken to
be the optimal localization point for associated trapping schemes, but this
sort of conservative strategy generally compromises the achievable cavity QED
coupling strength. Here we suggest a new approach to the design of optical
dipole traps for atom confinement near surfaces that exploits strong surface
interactions, rather than avoiding them, and present the results of a numerical
study based on $^{39}$K atoms and indium tin oxide (ITO). Our theoretical
framework points to the possibility of utilizing nanopatterning methods to
engineer novel modifications of atom-surface interactions.
