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Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference

Resolving and addressing atoms in individual sites of a CO/sub 2/-laser optical lattice

Martin Weitz, R. Scheunemann, F. S. Cataliotti, Theodor W. Hänsch

Published Jan 1, 2000• 5 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Summary form only given. Standing wave laser fields produce a periodic potential for atoms, which can trap cold atoms in an ordered crystal-like structure to form an optical lattice. Optical lattices have been used as model systems in studies of quantum dynamical effects and quantum state control. More recently, it has been suggested that such lattices would provide an attractive system for performing quantum logic experiments, as efficient quantum error correction schemes can be implemented due to the inherent possibility of parallel operation. On the other hand, the possibility to selectively address and manipulate single qubits is essential in the operation of quantum logic systems. This is difficult to achieve in conventional optical lattices, where the spatial period is of order half the wavelength of an optical absorption line. We report on the optical imaging of rubidium atoms trapped in the antinodes of an extremely far detuned optical lattice formed by retroreflecting the light of a CO/sub 2/-laser operating near 10.6 /spl mu/m. To our knowledge, this represents the first observation of the individual sites of an optical lattice with a periodicity near half the trapping wavelength. Besides the unusually large lattice constant (5.3 /spl mu/m), intriguing properties of this type of lattice also include extremely long coherence times, as the expected average photon scattering time is over 10 minutes.

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•Jan 1, 2012•2 citations
Summary form only given. Standing wave laser fields produce a periodic potential for atoms, which can trap cold atoms in an ordered crystal-like structure to form an optical lattice. Optical lattices have been used as model systems in studies of quantum dynamical effects and quantum state control. More recently, it has been suggested that such lattices would provide an attractive system for performing quantum logic experiments, as efficient quantum error correction schemes can be implemented due to the inherent possibility of parallel operation. On the other hand, the possibility to selectively address and manipulate single qubits is essential in the operation of quantum logic systems. This is difficult to achieve in conventional optical lattices, where the spatial period is of order half the wavelength of an optical absorption line. We report on the optical imaging of rubidium atoms trapped in the antinodes of an extremely far detuned optical lattice formed by retroreflecting the light of a CO/sub 2/-laser operating near 10.6 /spl mu/m. To our knowledge, this represents the first observation of the individual sites of an optical lattice with a periodicity near half the trapping wavelength. Besides the unusually large lattice constant (5.3 /spl mu/m), intriguing properties of this type of lattice also include extremely long coherence times, as the expected average photon scattering time is over 10 minutes.
Summary form only given.We report here the successful trapping of rubidium atoms in the antinodes of a standing wave near 10.6 /spl mu/m. This represents the realization of an optical lattice with usually large lattice period, being approximately seven times that of the excitation wavelength of the lowest electronic resonance. In a later three-dimensional configuration, more than one atom per microscopic trap could be captured at moderate average atomic densities, whereas in conventional optical lattices, only a few percent of the lattice sites are occupied.
We report on the microscopic imaging of individual sites of an optical lattice with a period of 5.3 \ensuremath{\mu}m created by a retroreflected, focused CO2{\mathrm{CO}}_{2}CO2​-laser beam. In this one-dimensional lattice, the Lamb-Dicke limit is fulfilled in all three spatial dimensions. Single lattice sites have been individually addressed with a focused near-resonant laser beam. Because of the negligible decoherence rate from spontaneous photon scattering such a lattice holds intriguing prospects for the realization of fault-tolerant quantum logic gates.
The imaging of neutral atoms confined in an optical lattice has been demonstrated by a number of groups, resolving single fluorescing atoms in samples of hundreds of atoms. To obtain a high signal the atoms remain confined in the wells of a deep optical lattice whilst fluorescence excitation light is applied for high resolution imaging. In most cases, the excitation light frequency is chosen so that there is a concomitant laser cooling effect. In existing implementations of an imaging lattice the preceding manipulation stage has used optical trapping and manipulation. In this thesis I describe work towards applying this imaging lattice technique on a magnetic trapping apparatus, in particular for carrying out quantum simulation experiments. An introduction to the specific challenge of performing a quantum simulation of the fractional quantum Hall effect is given, with the link to and nature of the imaging lattice technique explained. The existing quantum-gas machine that has been developed to produce Bose-Einstein condensates of 87Rb in this work is then described, including the new optical lattice subsystem and the associated diode laser system. An auxiliary project to develop a servo-control system for frequencies that are several GHz away from an atomic reference is presented. We implement an optical lattice using laser light with a frequency detuning of -20 GHz below the D1-resonance line. The construction and geometry of the individual dipole trapping beams in combination with our existing apparatus is discussed as well as the alignment methods used. We confirm the presence of three independent 1D lattices through diffraction, and observe the decay of a BEC loaded into a lattice using absorption imaging. We observe good long-term alignment and operational stability of the optical lattice. This system will enable us to ultimately detect single fluorescing atoms in the optical lattice, following the application of excitation light co-propogating with lattice beams, via an imaging system with a moderate numerical aperture of 0:27.
We demonstrate a resonance imaging protocol for optical lattices that enables robust preparation and single qubit addressing of atoms with sub-wavelength resolution in 1D. A 3D optical lattice consisting of three sets of independent 1D counter- propagating laser beams provides the trapping potential for the atoms. On this optical lattice platform, a long-period 1D superlattice is imposed by interfering two laser beams at a shallow angle centered at the atoms. This superlattice creates a position-dependent shift of the qubit transition frequency defined between two spin states in the ground manifold. Isolated 2D planes of atoms are prepared by flipping the resonant spins with a microwave pulse and removing the non-resonant spins by pushing them out of the lattice with a resonant laser beam. The periodic planes of atoms that are prepared can be imaged by applying another microwave pulse and detecting the fluorescence from the spins that flip back to the initial state, as a function of superlattice displacement between the preparation and read-out pulses. By employing these new techniques for sub-wavelength imaging, we tested the effectiveness of using composite pulses for addressing the trapped atoms in an optical lattice. Composite pulse techniques can be used to reduce the sensitivity of the addressing to small variations in the relative position and intensity of the lattices. This robustness is achieved by applying numerically generated composite pulses that have a constant atomic response within a target range of relative lattice positions and intensities. We designed a composite microwave pulse that flips the spin with near unit fidelity for all atoms that are positioned within a target spatial region, while conserving the spin of the atoms outside of that region. This cannot be accomplished with plain pulses due to off-resonant excitation. We also expanded the concept of this technique for robustly addressing spins even further to implement independent unitaries, or single qubit quantum gates, across several adjacent lattice sites. Finally, in order to quantitatively measure the fidelity of these robust composite pulses, we perform a randomized benchmarking procedure, which was first proposed by Knill.