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Chinese Physics B

Efficient loading of a single neutral atom into an optical microscopic tweezer

Jun He, Bei Liu, Wen-Ting Diao, Jieying Wang, Gang Jin, Junmin Wang

Published Mar 31, 2015• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A single atom in a magneto–optical trap (MOT) with trap size (hundreds of micrometers) can be transferred into an optical microscopic tweezer with a probability of ~ 100%. The ability to transfer a single atom into two traps back and forth allows us to study the loading process. The loading probability is found to be insensitive to the geometric overlap of the MOT and the tweezer. It is therefore possible to perform simultaneously loading of a single atom into all sites of the tweezer array for many qubits. In particular, we present a simulation of the one-dimensional and two-dimensional arrays of an optical microscopic tweezer. We find the same qualitative behavior for all of the trap parameters.

DOI
10.1088/1674-1056/24/4/043701

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A single atom in a magneto–optical trap (MOT) with trap size (hundreds of micrometers) can be transferred into an optical microscopic tweezer with a probability of ~ 100%. The ability to transfer a single atom into two traps back and forth allows us to study the loading process. The loading probability is found to be insensitive to the geometric overlap of the MOT and the tweezer. It is therefore possible to perform simultaneously loading of a single atom into all sites of the tweezer array for many qubits. In particular, we present a simulation of the one-dimensional and two-dimensional arrays of an optical microscopic tweezer. We find the same qualitative behavior for all of the trap parameters.
Based on feedback control techniques and our realization of nearly complete transferring cold cesium (Cs) atoms from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) to a far-off-resonance microscopic optical tweezer, we investigated the possibility for nearly deterministic loading of a single Cs atom in a MOT and in a microscopic optical tweezer. We combined feedback controls on the gradient of the MOT quadrupole magnetic field (QMF) and on blue-detuned light-assisted collisions (LAC) of confined cold atoms in the tweezer. Using active feedback on QMF of the MOT, we have achieved ~ 98% of probability of single atom loading in a MOT. In a microscopic optical tweezer, by combining the feedback controls on the QMF and the LAC, we finally achieved ~ 95.2% of probability of single atom loading in the tweezer. This two-path feedback control scheme may be extended to load a small-size 2D tweezer array with exact single atom trapped in each site simultaneously. This is very important and promising to implement an addressable multiple-qubit system for demonstrating quantum register and quantum processor.
Efficient loading of single atoms into tightly confined traps is crucial for advancing quantum information processing and exploring atom-photon interactions. However, directly loading atoms from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) into static tweezers in cavity-based systems and hybrid atom-photon interfaces remains a challenge. Here, we demonstrate atom loading in a tightly confined optical tweezer 0.6mm away from MOT by an optical conveyor belt. By employing real-time feedback control of the atom number in the overlapping region between the conveyor belt and the tweezer, we enhance a single-atom loading probability to 77.6%. Our technique offers a versatile solution for deterministic single-atom loading in various experimental settings and paves the way for diverse applications based on hybrid photonic-atom structures.
Optical tweezers have become powerful tools for the confinement and manipulation of neutral atoms, molecules, mesoscopic biological molecules and living cells. In our experiment, a single caesium atom was prepared in a large-magnetic-gradient magneto-optical trap (MOT). It was then efficiently transferred back and forth between the MOT and a 1064 nm microscopic optical tweezer. The atomic transfer between the MOT and the tweezer can be employed to measure the trapping lifetime and the energy distribution of the single atom in the tweezer. In order to extend the trapping lifetime, laser cooling is used to decrease the atom's kinetic energy. The trapping lifetime was extended from ∼75 to ∼130 s by applying a 10 ms laser cooling phase just after the single atom is transferred into the tweezer.
We report the realization of a deterministic single-atom preparation by the method of all-optical feedback. Using a fast-real-time feedback, the light-induced atom desorption effect and blue detuned light-induced atom collision process can increase a success probability of single-atom preparation up to more than 99%. We investigate the dynamics of loading single atom trapped in a trap with a size of hundreds of micrometers into a pair of microscopic tweezers. The detailed experimental results show that the feedback loading is spatially insensitive, which implies that it is possible to use the feedback protocol to simultaneously implement the loading of large number of qubits arrays.
Single cesium atom prepared in a large-magnetic-gradient magneto-optical trap (MOT) has been efficiently loaded into a microscopic far-off-resonance optical trap (FORT, or optical tweezer), and the atom can be transferred back and forth between two traps with high efficiency. The intensity noise spectra of tweezer laser are measured and the heating mechanisms in optical tweezer are analyzed. To prolong the lifetime of single atom trapped in optical tweezer, laser cooling technique is utilized to decrease atom's kinetic energy, and the effective temperature of single atom in tweezer is estimated by the release-and-recapture (R&R) method. Thanks to laser cooling, typical lifetime of ~ 130.6 ± 1.8 s for single atom in tweezer is obtained. These works provides a good starting point for coherent manipulation of single atom.
We demonstrate rapid loading of a small array of optical tweezers with a single ^{87}Rb atom per site. We find that loading efficiencies of up to 90% per tweezer are achievable in less than 170 ms for traps separated by more than 1.7 μm. Interestingly, we find the load efficiency is affected by nearby traps and present the efficiency as a function of the spacing between two optical tweezers. This enhanced loading, combined with subsequent rearranging of filled sites, will enable the study of quantum many-body systems via quantum gas assembly.