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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Single atom occupancy in a microscopic dipole trap

Andrew J. Hilliard, Mathew McGovern, Tzahi Grünzweig, Mikkel F. Andersen

Published May 1, 2011• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Atoms in microscopic optical dipole traps provide a versatile platform for fundamental studies of quantum mechanics at the individual event level and have potential for application in quantum information processing. Recent progress in these fields includes demonstrations of many body quantum states at the single atom level, the phase shift of a light beam induced by a single atom, and the realization of a Controlled-NOT quantum gate.

DOI
10.1109/cleoe.2011.5943298

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Atoms in microscopic optical dipole traps provide a versatile platform for fundamental studies of quantum mechanics at the individual event level and have potential for application in quantum information processing. Recent progress in these fields includes demonstrations of many body quantum states at the single atom level, the phase shift of a light beam induced by a single atom, and the realization of a Controlled-NOT quantum gate.
Ultracold neutral atoms confined in optical dipole traps have important applications in quantum computation and information processing, quantum simulators of interacting-many-body systems and atomic frequency metrology. While optical dipole traps are powerful tools for cold atom experiments, the energy level structures of the trapped atoms are shifted by the trapping field, and it is important to characterize these shifts in order to accurately manipulate and control the quantum state of the system.\n\nIn order to measure the light shifts, we have designed a system that allows us to reliably trap individual 87Rb atoms. A non-destructive detection technique is employed so that the trapped atoms can be continuously observed for over 100 seconds. Single atom spectroscopy, trap frequency measurements, and temperature measurements are performed on single atoms in a single focus trap and small number of atoms in a 1D optical lattice in order to characterize the trapping environment, the perturbed energy level structures, and the probe-induced heating.\n\nIn the second part of the thesis, we demonstrate deterministic delivery of an array of individual atoms to an optical cavity and selective addressability of individual atoms in a 1D optical conveyor, which serves as a potential candidate for scalable quantum information processing. The experiment is extended to a dual lattice system coupled to a single cavity with the capability of independent lattice control and addressability. The mutual interactions of atoms in different lattices mediated by a common cavity field are demonstrated. A semi-classical model in the many-atom regime based on the Jaynes-Cummings model is developed to describe the system that is in good qualitative agreement with the data. This work provides a foundation for developing multi-qubit quantum information experiments with a dual lattice cavity system.
We have realized a very small optical dipole trap that is designed to store and manipulate individual atoms. Due to the very small dipole-trap volume, a 'collisional blockade' mechanism locks the average number of trapped atoms at a value of 0.5 over a large range of loading rates. Here we describe methods to characterize the motion of a single trapped atom, and we also demonstrate the possibility of trapping two atoms individually at a short distance apart. Finally, we study theoretically the possibility to perform 'conditional quantum logic' by scattering photons from two such atoms.
Microscopically controlled neutral atoms in optical tweezers and lattices have led to exciting advances in the study of quantum information and quantum many-body systems. The light shifts of atomic levels from the trapping potential in these systems can result in detrimental effects such as fluctuating dipole force heating, inhomogeneous detunings, and inhibition of laser cooling, which limits the atomic species that can be manipulated. In particular, these light shifts can be large enough to prevent loading into optical tweezers directly from a magneto-optical trap. We implement a general solution to these limitations by loading, as well as cooling and imaging the atoms with temporally alternating beams, and present an analysis of the role of heating and required cooling for single atom tweezer loading. Because this technique does not depend on any specific spectral properties, it should enable the optical tweezer platform to be extended to nearly any atomic or molecular species that can be laser cooled and optically trapped.
We have demonstrated preparing and rotating single neutral rubidium atoms in an optical ring lattice generated by a spatial light modulator, inserting two atoms into a single microscopic optical potential efficiently by dynamically reshaping the optical dipole trap, trapping single atoms in a blue detuned optical bottle beam trap, and confining single atoms into the Lamb-Dicke regime by combining red and blue detuned optical potentials. In combination with the manipulation of internal states of single atoms, the study is opening a way for research in the field of quantum information processing and quantum simulation. In this paper we review the past works and discuss the prospects.