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Optics Express

Continued imaging of the transport of a single neutral atom

Y. Miroshnychenko, D. Schrader, Stefan Kuhr, Wolfgang Alt, I. Dotsenko, Mkrtych Khudaverdyan, Arno Rauschenbeutel, Dieter Meschede

Published Dec 15, 2003• 40 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have continuously imaged the controlled motion of a single atom as well as of a small number of distinguishable atoms with observation times exceeding one minute. The Cesium atoms are confined to potential wells of a standing wave optical dipole trap which allows to transport them over macroscopic distances. The atoms are imaged by an intensified CCD camera, and spatial resolution near the diffraction limit is obtained.

DOI
10.1364/oe.11.003498

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We have continuously imaged the controlled motion of a single atom as well as of a small number of distinguishable atoms with observation times exceeding one minute. The Cesium atoms are confined to potential wells of a standing wave optical dipole trap which allows to transport them over macroscopic distances. The atoms are imaged by an intensified CCD camera, and spatial resolution near the diffraction limit is obtained.
We optically detect the positions of single neutral cesium atoms stored in a standing wave dipole trap with a sub-wavelength resolution of 105 nm. The distance between two simultaneously trapped atoms is measured with an even higher precision of 55 nm. We resolve the discreteness of the interatomic distances due to the 532 nm spatial period of the standing wave potential and infer the exact number of trapping potential wells separating the atoms. Finally, combining an initial position detection with a controlled transport, we place single atoms at a predetermined position along the trap axis to within 300 nm.
We optically detect the positions of single neutral cesium atoms stored in a standing wave dipole trap with a subwavelength resolution of 143 nm rms. The distance between two simultaneously trapped atoms is measured with an even higher precision of 36 nm rms. We resolve the discreteness of the interatomic distances due to the 532 nm spatial period of the standing wave potential and infer the exact number of trapping potential wells separating the atoms. Finally, combining an initial position detection with a controlled transport, we place single atoms at a predetermined position along the trap axis to within 300 nm rms.
We report the realization of a deterministic source of single atoms. A standing-wave dipole trap is loaded with one or any desired number of cold cesium atoms from a magneto-optical trap. By controlling the motion of the standing wave, we adiabatically transport the atom with submicrometer precision over macroscopic distances on the order of a centimeter. The displaced atom is observed directly in the dipole trap by fluorescence detection. The trapping field can also be accelerated to eject a single atom into free flight with well-defined velocities.
A small known number of cesium atoms is loaded from a magneto-optical trap into a far detuned, standing wave optical dipole trap. This trap is made of two counter-propagating Nd:YAG laser beams (/spl lambda/= 1064 nm) which give rise to a chain of potential wells with a depth of about 1 mK and an axial spacing of 532 nm. By fitting the axial intensity distribution with a Gaussian function, the positions of the individual atoms are determined automatically with a precision of 100 nm rms, mainly limited by photon statistics.
The motion of individual cesium atoms trapped inside an optical resonator is revealed with the atom-cavity microscope (ACM). A single atom moving within the resonator generates large variations in the transmission of a weak probe laser, which are recorded in real time. An inversion algorithm then allows individual atom trajectories to be reconstructed from the record of cavity transmission and reveals single atoms bound in orbit by the mechanical forces associated with single photons. In these initial experiments, the ACM yields 2-micrometer spatial resolution in a 10-microsecond time interval. Over the duration of the observation, the sensitivity is near the standard quantum limit for sensing the motion of a cesium atom.