We describe a simple experimental technique which allows to store a single Rubidium 87 atom in an optical dipole trap. Due to light-induced two-body collisions during the loading stage of the trap the maximum number of captured atoms is locked to one. This collisional blockade effect is confirmed by the observation of photon anti-bunching in the detected fluorescence light. The spectral properties of single photons emitted by the atom were studied with a narrow-band scanning cavity. We find that the atomic fluorescence spectrum is dominated by the spectral width of the exciting laser light field. In addition we observe a spectral broadening of the atomic fluorescence light due to the Doppler effect. This allows us to determine the mean kinetic energy of the trapped atom corresponding to a temperature of 105 micro Kelvin. This simple single-atom trap is the key element for the generation of atom-photon entanglement required for future applications in quantum communication and a first loophole-free test of Bell's inequality.
We trap a single cesium atom in a standing-wave optical dipole trap. Special experimental procedures, designed to work with single atoms, are used to measure the oscillation frequency and the atomic energy distribution in the dipole trap. These methods rely on unambiguously detecting presence or loss of the atom using its resonance fluorescence in the magneto-optical trap.
We investigate the physics of a single trapped electron interacting with a radiation field without the dipole approximation. This gives new physical insights in the so-called geonium theory.
We present a detailed analysis and design of a neutral atom quantum logic device based on atoms in optical traps interacting via dipole-dipole coupling of Rydberg states. The dominant physical mechanisms leading to decoherence and loss of fidelity are enumerated. Our results support the feasibility of performing single and two-qubit gates at MHz rates with decoherence probability and fidelity errors at the level of $10^{-3}$ for each operation. Current limitations and possible approaches to further improvement of the device are discussed.
We report sensitive detection of parametric resonances in a high-density sample of ultracold $^{87}Rb$ atoms confined to a far-off-resonance optical dipole trap. Fluorescence imaging of the expanded ultracold atom cloud after a period of parametric excitation shows significant modification of the atomic spatial distribution and has high sensitivity compared with traditional measurements of parametrically-driven trap loss. Using this approach, a significant shift of the parametric resonance frequency is observed, and attributed to the anharmonic shape of the dipole trap potential.
Resolved sideband cooling provides a crucial step in subrecoil cooling the trapped atoms toward their motional ground state, which is essential in atom-based quantum technologies. Here we present an enhanced dark-state sideband cooling in trapped atoms utilizing photon-mediated dipole-dipole interactions among them. By placing the atoms at the magic interparticle distances, we manifest an outperformed cooling behavior in the target atom, which surpasses the limit that a single atom permits. We further investigate various atomic configurations in a multiatom setup with a laser detuning and diff…
We experimentally demonstrate novel structures for the realisation of registers of atomic qubits: We trap neutral atoms in one and two-dimensional arrays of far-detuned dipole traps obtained by focusing a red-detuned laser beam with a microfabricated array of microlenses. We are able to selectively address individual trap sites due to their large lateral separation of 125 mu m. We initialize and read out different internal states for the individual sites. We also create two interleaved sets of trap arrays with adjustable separation, as required for many proposed implementations of quantum gate…
We propose a scheme for quantum logic with neutral atoms stored in an array of holographic dipole traps where the positions of the atoms can be rearranged by using holographic optical tweezers. In particular, this allows for the transport of two atoms to the same well where an external control field is used to perform gate operations via the molecular interaction between the atoms. We show that optimal control techniques allow for the fast implementation of the gates with high fidelity.
A method for non-destructive characterization of a dipole trapped atomic sample is presented. It relies on a measurement of the phase-shift imposed by cold atoms on an optical pulse that propagates through a free space Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Using this technique we are able to determine, with very good accuracy, relevant trap parameters such as the atomic sample temperature, trap oscillation frequencies and loss rates. Another important feature is that our method is faster than conventional absorption or fluorescence techniques, allowing the combination of high-dynamical range measuremen…
We describe a simple experimental technique which allows us to store a small and deterministic number of neutral atoms in an optical dipole trap. The desired atom number is prepared in a magneto-optical trap overlapped with a single focused Nd:YAG laser beam. Dipole trap loading efficiency of 100 % and storage times of about one minute have been achieved. We have also prepared atoms in a certain hyperfine state and demonstrated the feasibility of a state-selective detection via resonance fluorescence at the level of a few neutral atoms. A spin relaxation time of the polarized sample of $4.2\pm…
The transmission spectrum of two dipole-dipole coupled atoms interacting with a single-mode optical cavity in strong coupling regime is investigated theoretically for the lower and higher excitation cases, respectively. The dressed states containing the dipole-dipole interaction (DDI) are obtained by transforming the two-atom system into an effective single-atom one. We found that the DDI can enhance the effects resulting from the positive atom-cavity detunings but weaken them for the negative detunings cases for lower excitation, which can promote the spectrum exhibiting two asymmetric peaks …
A cold atomic gas with an inverted population on a transition coupled to a field mode of an optical resonator constitutes a generic model of a laser. For quasi-continuous operation, external pumping, trapping and cooling of the atoms is required to confine them in order to achieve enough gain inside the resonator. As inverted atoms are high-field seekers in blue detuned light fields, tuning the cavity mode to the blue side of the atomic gain transition allows for combining lasing with stimulated cavity cooling and dipole trapping of the atoms at the antinodes of the laser field. We study such …
An analogy is explored between a setup of three atomic traps coupled via tunneling and an internal atomic three-level system interacting with two laser fields. Within this scenario we describe a STIRAP like process which allows to move an atom between the ground states of two trapping potentials and analyze its robustness. This analogy is extended to other robust and coherent transport schemes and to systems of more than a single atom. Finally it is applied to manipulate external degrees of freedom of atomic wave packets propagating in waveguides.
We study in detail the mechanisms causing dephasing of hyperfine coherences of cesium atoms confined by a far off-resonant standing wave optical dipole trap [S. Kuhr et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 213002 (2003)]. Using Ramsey spectroscopy and spin echo techniques, we measure the reversible and irreversible dephasing times of the ground state coherences. We present an analytical model to interpret the experimental data and identify the homogeneous and inhomogeneous dephasing mechanisms. Our scheme to prepare and detect the atomic hyperfine state is applied at the level of a single atom as well as…
We demonstrate high fidelity single-qubit gate operation in a trapped single neutral atom. The atom is trapped in the recently invented magic-intensity optical dipole trap (MI-ODT) with more stable magnetic field. The MI-ODT efficiently mitigates the detrimental effects of light shifts thus sufficiently improves the performance of single qubit-gates. The gates are driven with microwave, and the fidelity of gate operation is characterized by using the randomized benchmarking method. We obtain an average error per Clifford gate of $3.0(7)\times10^{-5}$ which is much below the error threshold ($1…
Trapped-ion quantum platforms are subject to `anomalous' heating due to interactions with electric-field noise sources of nature not yet completely known. There is ample experimental evidence that this noise originates at the surfaces of the trap electrodes, and models assuming fluctuating point-like dipoles are consistent with observations, but the exact microscopic mechanisms behind anomalous heating remain undetermined. Here we show how a two-ion probe displays a transition in its dissipation properties, enabling experimental access to the mean orientation of the dipoles and the spatial ext…
We describe how quantum dot semiconductor cavity systems can be engineered to realize anisotropy-induced dipole-dipole coupling between orthogonal dipole states in a single quantum dot. Quantum dots in single-mode cavity structures as well as photonic crystal waveguides coupled to spin states or linearly polarized excitons are considered. We demonstrate pronounced dipole-dipole coupling to control the radiative decay rate of excitons and form pure entangled states in the long time limit. We investigate both field-free entanglement evolution and coherently pumped exciton regimes, and show how a…
We investigate the control landscapes of closed, finite level quantum systems beyond the dipole approximation by including a polarizability term in the Hamiltonian. Theoretical analysis is presented for the $n$ level case and formulas for singular controls, which are candidates for landscape traps, are compared to their analogues in the dipole approximation. A numerical analysis of the existence of traps in control landscapes beyond the dipole approximation is made in the four level case. A numerical exploration of these control landscapes is achieved by generating many random Hamiltonians whi…
We study energy levels of two heteronuclear molecules moving in a spherically symmetric harmonic trap. A role of electric dipole interactions is compared and contrasted with our earlier results (https://arxiv.org/abs/1512.00631) for two magnetic dipolar atoms. We stress importance of a rotational energy with its value which is very high compared to the energy of dipolar interaction. We show that dipolar forces do not play a significant role in the ground state of the system under typical experimental conditions. However, there exist excited states that exhibit anticrossings similar to the ones…
The entanglement of two dipole-coupled atoms with nondegenerate two-photon transitions interacting with two-mode field in lossless cavity has been investigated. It shows that the entanglement is dependent on the initial atomic states. The possibility of considerable growth of atomic entanglement due atomic coherence and dipole-dipole interaction is shown in the case of great mean values of thermal photons.
In the present work, the effect of AC-Stark shift (i.e. light-shift) in optical dipole trap on in-situ absorption probe imaging of the trapped atoms has been investigated. We have calculated the light-shift of various energy levels of $^{87}$Rb atoms relevant for trapping in an optical dipole trap (ODT). The spatial varying intensity of the ODT beam results in position dependent light-shift (i.e. AC-Stark shift). Such modifications in the energy levels of the atom result in modification in the absorption cross-section, which finally modifies the optical density (OD) in in-situ absorption imagi…
We investigate fluorescence detection using a standing wave of blue-detuned light of one or more atoms held in a deep, microscopic dipole trap. The blue-detuned standing wave realizes a Sisyphus laser cooling mechanism so that an atom can scatter many photons while remaining trapped. When imaging more than one atom, the blue detuning limits loss due to inelastic light-assisted collisions. Using this standing wave probe beam, we demonstrate that we can count from one to the order of 100 atoms in the microtrap with sub-poissonian precision.
We propose a simple scheme, in which only one atom couples to a cavity field, to entangle two two-level atoms. We connect two atoms with dipole-dipole interaction since one of them can move around the cavity. The results show that the peak entanglment does not depend on dipole-dipole interaction strength but on field density at a certain controlling time. So the field density can act as a switch for maximum entanglement (ME) generation.
We experimentally investigate $σ^+$-$σ^-$ polarization gradient cooling~(PGC) of a single $^{87}$Rb atom in a tightly focused dipole trap and show that the cooling limit strongly depends on the polarization of the trapping field. For optimized cooling light power, the temperature of the atom reaches~$10.4(6)\,μ$K in a linearly polarized trap, approximately five times lower than in a circularly polarized trap. The inhibition of PGC is qualitatively explained by the fictitious magnetic fields induced by the trapping field. We further demonstrate that switching the trap polarization from linear t…
Optical trapping of selected species of radioactive atoms has great potential in precision measurements for testing fundamental physics such as EDM, PNC and parity violating beta-decay asymmetry correlation coefficients. We report trapping of 10^4 radioactive ^{82}Rb atoms (t_{1/2}=75 s) with a trap lifetime of ~55 seconds in an optical dipole trap. Transfer efficiency from the magneto-optical trap was ~14%. We further report the evidence of spontaneous spin polarization of the atoms in optical dipole trap loading. This advancement is an important step towards a new generation of precision J-b…
We demonstrate a simple scheme to reach Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of metastable triplet helium atoms using a single beam optical dipole trap with moderate power of less than 3 W. Our scheme is based on RF-induced evaporative cooling in a quadrupole magnetic trap and transfer to a single beam optical dipole trap that is located below the magnetic trap center. We transfer 1x10^6 atoms into the optical dipole trap, with an initial temperature of 14 μK, and observe efficient forced evaporative cooling both in a hybrid trap, in which the quadrupole magnetic trap operates just below the levit…
The subject of this review are atom traps based on optical dipole forces in laser fields, along with their unique features as storage devices at ultralow energies. The basic physics of the dipole interaction is discussed, and the experimental background of dipole trapping experiments is explained. Specific trapping schemes and experiments are presented, where the wide range of applications of dipole traps is explored considering particular examples.
The capture of a moving atom by a non-dissipative trap, such as an optical dipole trap, requires the removal of the excessive kinetic energy of the atom. In this article we develop a mechanism to harvest ultra cold atoms from a guided atom beam into an optical dipole trap by removing their directed kinetic energy. We propose a continuous loading scheme where this is accomplished via deceleration by a magnetic potential barrier followed by optical pumping to the energetically lowest Zeeman sublevel. We theoretically investigate the application of this scheme to the transfer of ultra cold chromi…
We measure the AC-Stark shifts of the 5S{1/2}, F=2 to 5P{3/2}, F'=3 transitions of individual optically trapped 87Rb atoms using a non-destructive detection technique that allows us to measure the fluorescent signal of one-and-the-same atom for over 60 seconds. These measurements allow efficient and rapid characterization of single atom traps that is required for many coherent quantum information protocols. Although this method is demonstrated using a single atom trap, the concept is readily extended to resolvable atomic arrays.
Optical dipole-traps are used in various scientific fields, including classical optics, quantum optics and biophysics. Here, we propose and implement a dipole-trap for nanoparticles that is based on focusing from the full solid angle with a deep parabolic mirror. The key aspect is the generation of a linear-dipole mode which is predicted to provide a tight trapping potential. We demonstrate the trapping of rod-shaped nanoparticles and validate the trapping frequencies to be on the order of the expected ones. The described realization of an optical trap is applicable for various other kinds of …
We report the all-optical production of a Rb87 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a simple 1.06 micron dipole trap experiment. We load a single beam dipole trap directly from a magneto-optic trap (MOT) using an optimized loading sequence. After evaporation in the single beam, a second crossed beam is used for compression. The intensity in both beams is then reduced for evaporation to BEC. We obtain a BEC with 3.5E4 atoms after 3 seconds of total evaporation time. We also give a detailed account of the thermal distribution in cross beam traps. This account highlights the possible difficulties in…
A dynamic blue-detuned optical dipole trap with stable $^{87}Rb$ atoms produces a differential ac Stark shift of 18 Hz in the ground state hyperfine transition, and it preserves the ground state hyperfine superpositions for a long coherence time of 180 ms. The trapped atoms undergoing microwave Rabi oscillations are sensitive to a small signal, artificially generated with a second microwave source, phase locked to the first allow- ing a simple and effective method for determining signal-to-noise ratio limits through interference techniques. This provides an excellent means of calibrating sensi…
An integrated optical dipole trap uses two-color (red and blue-detuned) traveling evanescent wave fields for trapping cold neutral atoms. To achieve longitudinal confinement, we propose using an integrated optical waveguide coupler, which provides a potential gradient along the beam propagation direction sufficient to confine atoms. This integrated optical dipole trap can support an atomic ensemble with a large optical depth due to its small mode area. Its quasi-TE0 waveguide mode has an advantage over the HE11 mode of a nanofiber, with little inhomogeneous Zeeman broadening at the trapping re…
The quadrupole interaction between the Rydberg electronic states of a Rydberg ion and the radio frequency electric field of the ion trap is analyzed. Such a coupling is negligible for the lowest energy levels of a trapped ion but it is important for a trapped Rydberg ion due to its large electric dipole moment. This coupling cannot be neglected by the standard rotating-wave approximation because it is comparable to the frequency of the trapping electric field. We investigate the effect of the quadrupole coupling by performing a suitable effective representation of the Hamiltonian. For a single…
We present an optimized strategy for the production of tightly confined Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of 87Rb in a crossed dipole trap with direct loading from a magneto-optical trap. The dipole trap is created with light of a multifrequency fiber laser with a center wavelength of 1070nm. Evaporative cooling is performed by ramping down the laser power only. A comparison of the resulting atom number in an almost pure BEC to the initial atom number and the value for the gain in phase space density per atom lost confirm that this straightforward strategy is very efficient. We observe that the …
We study light-assisted collisions in an ensemble containing a small number (~3) of cold Rb87 atoms trapped in a microscopic dipole trap. Using our ability to operate with one atom exactly in the trap, we measure the one-body heating rate associated to a near-resonant laser excitation, and we use this measurement to extract the two-body loss rate associated to light-assisted collisions when a few atoms are present in the trap. Our measurements indicate that the two-body loss rate can reach surprisingly large values beta>10^{-8} cm^{3}.s^{-1} and varies rapidly with the trap depth and the param…
Two efficient and isotope-selective resonant two-photon ionization techniques for loading barium ions into radio-frequency (RF)-traps are demonstrated. The scheme of using a strong dipole-allowed transition at λ=553 nm as a first step towards ionization is compared to the established technique of using a weak intercombination line (λ=413 nm). An increase of two orders of magnitude in the ionization efficiency is found favoring the transition at 553 nm. This technique can be implemented using commercial all-solid-state laser systems and is expected to be advantageous compared to other narrowban…
We investigate single cesium (Cs) atom heating owing to the momentum accumulation process induced by the resonant pulsed excitation in a microscopic optical dipole trap formed by a strongly focused 1064 nm laser beam. The heating depends on the trap frequency which restricts the maximum repetition rate of pulsed excitation. We experimentally verify the heating of a single atom and then demonstrate how to suppress it with an optimized pulsed excitation/cooling method. The typical trap lifetime of single Cs atom is extended from 108 +/- 6 us to 2536 +/- 31 ms, and the corresponding number of exc…
We present a theoretical investigation of coherent dynamics of a spin qubit encoded in hyperfine sublevels of an alkali-metal atom in a far off-resonant optical dipole trap. The qubit is prepared in the "clock transition" utilizing the Zeeman states with zero projection of the spin angular momentum. We focus on various dephasing processes such as the residual motion of the atom, fluctuations of the trapping field and its incoherent scattering and their effects on the qubit dynamics. We implement the most general fully-quantum treatment of the atomic motion, so our results remain valid in the l…
The permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of the $^{171}$Yb $(I=1/2)$ atom is measured with atoms held in an optical dipole trap (ODT). By enabling a cycling transition that is simultaneously spin-selective and spin-preserving, a quantum non-demolition measurement with a spin-detection efficiency of 50$\%$ is realized. A systematic effect due to parity mixing induced by a static E field is observed, and is suppressed by averaging between measurements with ODTs in opposite directions. The coherent spin precession time is found to be much longer than 300 s. The EDM is determined to be $d({\rm^{…
Based on the multi-level model, we have calculated light shifts for Zeeman states of hyperfine levels of cesium (Cs) 6S1/2 ground state and 6P3/2 excited state.The magic-wavelength linearly-polarized optical dipole trap (ODT) for Cs 6S1/2 F=4, mF=+4 - 6P3/2 F'=5, mF=+5 transition is experimentally constructed and characterized by using the laser-induced fluorescence spectra of trapped single Cs atoms. The magic wavelength is 937.7 nm which produces almost the same light shift for 6S1/2 F=4, mF=+4 ground state and 6P3/2 F'=5, mF=+5 excited state with linearly-polarized ODT laser beam. Compared …
We propose what we believe to be a novel type of optical source for ultra-cold atomic Far Off-Resonance optical-dipole Traps (FORTs). The source is based on an Erbium Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) source that seeds a high power Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA). The main interest of this source is its very low coherence length, thus allowing an incoherent superposition of several trapping beams without any optical interference. The behavior of the superimposed beams is then a scalar sum greatly simplifying complex configurations. As an illustration, we report an estimation of the inte…
Motivated by the ideas of using cold alkaline earth atoms trapped in an optical lattice for realization of optical atomic clocks, we investigate theoretically the perturbative effects of atom-atom interactions on a clock transition frequency. These interactions are mediated by the dipole fields associated with the optically excited atoms. We predict resonance-like features in the frequency shifts when constructive interference among atomic dipoles occur. We theoretically demonstrate that by fine-tuning the coherent dipole-dipole couplings in appropriately designed lattice geometries, the undes…
Since the early work by Ashkin in 1970, optical trapping has become one of the most powerful tools for manipulating small particles, such as micron sized beads or single atoms. The optical trapping mechanism is based on the interaction energy of a dipole and the electric field of the laser light. In atom trapping, the dominant contribution typically comes from the allowed optical transition closest to the laser wavelength, whereas for mesoscopic particles it is given by the bulk polarizability of the material. These two different regimes of optical trapping have coexisted for decades without a…
We study a simple model consisting of an atomic ion and a polar molecule trapped in a single setup, taking into consideration their electrostatic interaction. We determine analytically their collective modes of excitation as a function of their masses, trapping frequencies, distance, and the molecule's electric dipole moment. We then discuss the application of these collective excitations to cool molecules, to entangle molecules and ions, and to realize two-qubit gates between them. We finally present a numerical analysis of the possibility of applying these tools to study magnetically ordered…
The study of low density, ultracold atomic Fermi gases is a promising avenue to understand fermion superfluidity from first principles. One technique currently used to bring Fermi gases in the degenerate regime is sympathetic cooling through a reservoir made of an ultracold Bose gas. We discuss a proposal for trapping and cooling of two-species Fermi-Bose mixtures into optical dipole traps made from combinations of laser beams having two different wavelengths. In these bichromatic traps it is possible, by a proper choice of the relative laser powers, to selectively trap the two species in such…
We trap atoms in versatile two-dimensional (2D) arrays of optical potentials, prepare flexible 2D spin configurations, perform site-selective coherent manipulation, and demonstrate the implementation of simultaneous measurements of different system properties, such as dephasing and decoherence. This novel approach for the flexible manipulation of atomic quantum systems is based on the combination of 2D arrays of microlenses and 2D arrays of liquid crystal light modulators. It offers novel types of control for the investigation of quantum degenerate gases, quantum information processing, and qu…
Tightly focused optical dipole traps induce vector light shifts ("fictitious magnetic fields") which complicate their use for single-atom trapping and manipulation. The problem can be mitigated by adding a larger, real magnetic field, but this solution is not always applicable; in particular, it precludes fast switching to a field-free configuration. Here we show that this issue can be addressed elegantly by deliberately adding a small elliptical polarization component to the dipole beam. In our experiments with single $^{87}$Rb atoms in a chopped trap, we observe improvements up to a factor 1…
