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CHARACTERIZING A MICROMIRROR-BASED PHASE LIGHT MODULATOR FOR NEUTRAL ATOM TWEEZER ARRAYS

Angela Jia, Monika Schleier-Smith, Joonhee Choi, Stanford University

Published Jun 5, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Engineering and controlling systems of neutral atoms reveals significant insights into applications such as quantum metrology, simulation, and computation. Programmable arrays of laser beams are necessary for trapping the atoms, rearranging them, and implementing quantum gates. Because the initial loading of atoms into optical tweezer arrays is a stochastic process, rapid reconfiguration of the beam pattern is essential for assembling defect-free arrays within the lifetime of the atoms. A recent new device, the Texas Instruments Phase Light Modulator (PLM), uses digital micromirrors to modulate optical path lengths, enabling a higher refresh rate than spatial light modulators based on liquid crystals. This work presents a characterization of the TI PLM for neutral atom tweezer applications. We construct a retroreflective 2F optical test setup, calibrate the device at 635 nm, and characterize diffraction efficiency, pattern quality, and pattern switching. We evaluate the PLM's prospects for 2D atom array rearrangement and tweezer merging, identifying advantages compared with existing approaches. These results inform potential integration of the PLM into neutral atom platforms.

DOI
10.25740/kh360dh9037

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Engineering and controlling systems of neutral atoms reveals significant insights into applications such as quantum metrology, simulation, and computation. Programmable arrays of laser beams are necessary for trapping the atoms, rearranging them, and implementing quantum gates. Because the initial loading of atoms into optical tweezer arrays is a stochastic process, rapid reconfiguration of the beam pattern is essential for assembling defect-free arrays within the lifetime of the atoms. A recent new device, the Texas Instruments Phase Light Modulator (PLM), uses digital micromirrors to modulate optical path lengths, enabling a higher refresh rate than spatial light modulators based on liquid crystals. This work presents a characterization of the TI PLM for neutral atom tweezer applications. We construct a retroreflective 2F optical test setup, calibrate the device at 635 nm, and characterize diffraction efficiency, pattern quality, and pattern switching. We evaluate the PLM's prospects for 2D atom array rearrangement and tweezer merging, identifying advantages compared with existing approaches. These results inform potential integration of the PLM into neutral atom platforms.
Digital micromirror devices (DMDs) have seen recent popularity as spatial light modulators (SLMs) for arbitrary and dynamic potential generation in the manipulation of neutral atom systems for quantum simulation and quantum computing platforms. In enabling the use of a DMD for this purpose, its latency, frame rate, and micromirror movement dynamics must be well characterized for various settings. In this paper, we present our FPGA-based system to control the DMD and the optical setup developed for its verification. Image information and control parameters are generated and configured using a Python user interface and sent to the FPGA using a C++ wrapper and the Cypress FX2 USB protocol. The FPGA design enables the leveraging of the high frame rate capabilities of the DMD as well as ensuring deterministic operation by first storing this USB data on an external DDR memory and updating the micromirror states upon receiving an external trigger pulse. The DMD is imaged onto a scientific camera and two photodiodes as a means of verifying the system behavior and investigating the metrics of interest. Using this framework, the DLP7000 consisting of 768x1024 micromirrors has been shown to refresh at 22 kHz with 45.4 μs latency. Furthermore, a single block consisting of 48x1024 micromirrors is able to refresh at 140 kHz with 7.1 μs latency. The loading and clearing behavior of micromirrors has also been characterized for varying refresh rates.
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.
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.
Abstract One of the essential requirements for atom-based technology is controlling the position and characterizing interactions between atoms and their environment. Optical tweezers are crucial for positioning atoms precisely. Typically, quantum technology research utilizes two-dimensional optical tweezers planar arrays, which are limited in manipulating atoms at different depths of field. To address this issue, three-dimensional optical tweezers can be simulated using a modulated phase mask of a Gaussian laser beam. The phase mask is computed using the direct phase addition (DPA) method with a weight factor, and the angular spectrum method (ASM) is employed to propagate a 2D intensity pattern transversely through the beam, layer by layer. Our results showed that the position of each trap can be adjusted to desire positions in 3D with a global weight factor. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates that increasing resolution improves measurement precision. Utilizing 3D atom arrays enhances quantum simulation capabilities, providing better insights into complex phenomena. The results of this investigation will be applied to a spatial light modulator in a real setup for an ultra-cold atom trapping experiment.
Dynamic holographic optical tweezers provide a programmable route to array assembly and reconfiguration essential for scalable neutral-atom quantum computation. However, phase mismatch between successive holograms can cause destructive interference during finite spatial light modulator (SLM) refresh. In this work, we analyze finite SLM refresh to establish a phase-stability criterion for prescribed trap amplitudes and develop a weighted-projective Gerchberg-Saxton (WPGS) method that efficiently approximates the corresponding phase-only complex-field optimization. Enforcing this phase constraint also reduces the number of iterations required for each update, achieving convergence within five iterations and enabling hologram generation within a few milliseconds. Numerical simulations of 2D and 3D reconfiguration involving more than 10310^3103 traps, together with nonuniform-intensity interlayer transport, show that WPGS preserves endpoint intensity quality while suppressing inter-frame phase mismatch, transient intensity degradation, trap splitting, and motional heating. Similar suppression of phase mismatch and transient-intensity degradation is maintained under Gaussian SLM-plane illumination. These results establish the phase-stability criterion as a practical design principle for dynamic holographic control and scalable neutral-atom array reconfiguration.
We demonstrate the trapping and manipulation of single neutral atoms in reconfigurable arrays of optical tweezers. Our approach offers unparalleled speed by using a Texas instruments digital micro-mirror device as a holographic amplitude modulator with a frame rate of 20 000 per second. We show the trapping of static arrays of up to 20 atoms, as well as transport of individually selected atoms over a distance of 25 μ m with laser cooling and 4 μ m without. We discuss the limitations of the technique and the scope for technical improvements.