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arXiv:2401.06014 · APL Quantum

Creation of a tweezer array for cold atoms utilizing a generative neural network

Zejian Ren, Xu Yan, Kai Wen, Huijin Chen, Elnur Hajiyev, Chengdong He, Gyu-Boong Jo

Published Nov 22, 2024• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Optical tweezers have become an essential tool for dynamically manipulating objects, ranging from microspheres or biological molecules to neutral atoms. In this study, we demonstrate the creation of tweezer arrays using a generative neural network, which allows the trapping of neutral atoms with tunable atom arrays. We have successfully loaded cold strontium atoms into various optical tweezer patterns generated using a spatial light modulator (SLM) integrated with generative models. Our approach shortens the process time to control the SLM with a minimal time delay, eliminating the need for repeated re-optimization of the hologram for the SLM.

DOI
10.1063/5.0219170

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Optical tweezers have become an essential tool for dynamically manipulating objects, ranging from microspheres or biological molecules to neutral atoms. In this study, we demonstrate the creation of tweezer arrays using a generative neural network, which allows the trapping of neutral atoms with tunable atom arrays. We have successfully loaded cold strontium atoms into various optical tweezer patterns generated using a spatial light modulator (SLM) integrated with generative models. Our approach shortens the process time to control the SLM with a minimal time delay, eliminating the need for repeated re-optimization of the hologram for the SLM.
Neutral atoms trapped by laser light are among the most promising candidates for storing and processing information in a quantum computer or simulator. The application certainly calls for a scalable and flexible scheme for addressing and manipulating the atoms. We have now made this a reality by implementing a fast and versatile method to dynamically control the position of neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers. The tweezers result from a spatial light modulator (SLM) controlling and shaping a large number of optical dipole-force traps. Trapped atoms adapt to any change in the potential landscape, such that one can rearrange and randomly access individual sites within atom-trap arrays.
Neutral atoms trapped in microscopic optical tweezers have emerged as a growing platform for quantum science. Achieving homogeneity over the tweezers array is an important technical requirement, and our research focuses on improving it for holographic arrays generated with a spatial light modulator. We present a series of optimization methods to calculate better holograms, fueled by precise measurement schemes. These innovations enable to achieve intensity homogeneity with a relative standard deviation of 0.3%, shape variations below 0.5%, and positioning errors within 70 nm. Such ultraprecise holographic optical tweezers arrays allow for the most demanding applications in quantum science with atomic arrays.
It is widely believed that tens of thousands of physical qubits are needed to build a practically useful quantum computer. Atom arrays formed by optical tweezers are among the most promising platforms for achieving this goal, owing to the excellent scalability and mobility of atomic qubits. However, assembling a defect-free atom array with ~ 10^4 qubits remains algorithmically challenging, alongside other hardware limitations. This is due to the computationally hard path-planning problems and the time-consuming generation of suffciently smooth trajectories for optical tweezer potentials by spatial light modulators (SLM). Here, we present a unified framework comprising two innovative components to fully address these algorithmic challenges: (1) a path-planning module that employs a supervised learning approach using a graph neural network combined with a modified auction decoder, and (2) a potential-generation module called the phase and profile-aware Weighted Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm. The inference time for the first module is nearly a size-independent constant overhead of ~ 5 ms, and the second module generates a potential frame with about 0.5 ms, a timescale shorter than the current commercial SLM refresh time. Altogether, our algorithm enables the assembly of an atom array with 10^4 qubits on a timescale much shorter than the typical vacuum lifetime of the trapped atoms.
Optical tweezer arrays of neutral atoms have emerged as a versatile and powerful platform for quantum simulation and quantum information processing. In this thesis, I present the realization of an experimental platform for quantum simulation based on individually trapped strontium atoms in optical tweezer arrays. The experiment combines precise laser cooling, optical control, and high-resolution imaging to enable the manipulation and high fidelity detection of single atoms. I developed and optimized a two-stage three-dimensional magneto-optical trap (3D-MOT) that produces cold and dense samples of strontium atoms from a thermal beam. In the f irst stage, atoms are captured and precooled using the dipole-allowed 1S0 → 1P1 transition at 461nm (which has a linewidth of !=2ω ↑ 32MHz). The second stage employs the 1S0 → 3P1 narrow intercombination transition at 689nm (with a linewidth of !=2ω ↑7.5kHz) to further cool and compress the atomic cloud. By optimizing the trapping parameters, I achieved clouds with temperatures around 5μK and densities above 1010cm→3, providing ideal initial conditions for e!cient loading into optical tweezers. A 3↑3 array of 360μK deep optical tweezers is generated by spatially modulating an 813.4nm laser beam using two crossed acousto-optic deflectors. The deflected beams are relayed and focused into the science chamber using a high–numericalaperture objective, which simultaneously serves as the collection optics for atomic f luorescence. The fluorescence light emitted by the atoms is imaged onto a scientific qCMOS camera, enabling site-resolved detection of individual atoms. I implemented and optimized the in-trap cooling dynamics to prevent atom loss during imaging and to minimize residual thermal motion. In addition, by precisely tuning lightassisted collisions, multiple atoms occupancies are removed from the traps and a single-atom regime is reached in the array, with a filling fraction of about 50%. I have demonstrated a single-atom detection fidelity of 99,986(1)% and a survival probability of 97(2)% between subsequent image acquisition, comparable to other current state-of-the-art experiments. To characterize the platform, I carried out release-and-recapture experiments, from which it is possible to measure a temperature for the individually trapped atoms of 12.95(5)μK. These results demonstrate the successful implementation of a robust and high-fidelity platform for optical trapping and imaging of single strontium atoms. The apparatus provides the foundation for future quantum simulation experiments with alkalineearth atoms excited to the Rydberg state, o"ering precise control over individual particles and the ability to scale towards larger, programmable atomic arrays.
Trapped neutral atoms are one of the leading platforms for quantum information technologies, in particular for quantum computing, but scaling them to array sizes needed for utility-scale quantum computing is a major engineering challenge. Here we review optical metasurfaces as an enabling technology that provides fine control over the phase, amplitude, and polarization of light, with pixel counts far exceeding what is available with spatial light modulators (SLMs) and other active devices. The large pixel counts have recently led to demonstrations of arrays of optical tweezers with hundreds of thousands of sites and arrays of optical bottle-beams with complex three-dimensional trapping profiles. The flexibility and scalability of optical metasurfaces provides a route towards miniaturized, integrated, and highly scalable atomic experiments and instruments.