  Cold neutral atoms provide a versatile and controllable platform for
emulating various quantum systems. Despite efforts to develop artificial gauge
fields in these systems, realizing a unique ideal-solenoid-shaped magnetic
field within the quantum domain in any real-world physical system remains
elusive. Here we propose a scheme to generate a "hairline" solenoid with an
extremely small size around 1 micrometer which is smaller than the typical
coherence length in cold atoms. Correspondingly, interference effects will play
a role in transport. Despite the small size, the magnetic flux imposed on the
atoms is very large thanks to the very strong field generated inside the
solenoid. By arranging different sets of Laguerre-Gauss (LG) lasers, the
generation of Abelian and non-Abelian SU(2) lattice gauge fields is proposed
for neutral atoms in ring- and square-shaped optical lattices. As an
application, interference patterns of the magnetic type-I Aharonov-Bohm (AB)
effect are obtained by evolving atoms along a circle over several tens of
lattice cells. During the evolution, the quantum coherence is maintained and
the atoms are exposed to a large magnetic flux. The scheme requires only
standard optical access, and is robust to weak particle interactions.
