Related papers: Efficient collisional blockade loading of single a…
Trapping of atoms and molecules in electrostatic, magnetic and optical traps has enabled studying atomic and molecular interactions on a timescale of many seconds, allowing observations of ultra-cold collisions and reactions. Here we report…
High precision mass and $g$-factor measurements in Penning traps have enabled groundbreaking tests of fundamental physics. The most advanced setups use multi-trap methods, which employ transport of particles between specialized trap zones.…
We report on trapping of fermionic 40K atoms in a red-detuned standing-wave optical trap, loaded from a magneto-optical trap. Typically, 10^6 atoms are loaded at a density of 10^12 cm^-3 and a temperature of 65 microK, and trapped for more…
We study inelastic collisions between CaF molecules and $^{87}$Rb atoms in a dual-species magneto-optical trap. The presence of atoms increases the loss rate of molecules from the trap. By measuring the loss rates and density distributions,…
We present recent results on the coherent control of an optical transition in a single rubidium atom, trapped in an optical tweezer. We excite the atom using resonant light pulses that are short (4 ns) compared with the lifetime of the…
We experimentally demonstrate cooling of trapped ions by collisions with co-trapped, higher mass neutral atoms. It is shown that the lighter $^{39}$K$^{+}$ ions, created by ionizing $^{39}$K atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT), when…
Single atoms movable from one place to another would enable a flying quantum memory that can be used for quantum communication and quantum computing at the same time. Guided atoms, e.g., by optical tweezers, provide a partial solution, but…
Coherent transport by adiabatic passage has recently been suggested as a high-fidelity technique to engineer the centre-of-mass state of single atoms in inhomogenous environments. While the basic theory behind this process is well…
The optical properties of a fixed atom are well-known and investigated. For example, the extraordinarily large cross section of a single atom as seen by a resonant photon is essential for quantum optical applications. Mechanical effects…
In the past, light-assisted cold collisions between laser cooled atoms have been widely studied in magneto-optical atom traps (MOTs). We describe here theoretical studies of dynamical interactions, specifically cold collisions, between…
We show that an optimized loading of a cold ensemble of rubidium-87 atoms from a magnetic trap into an optical dipole trap sustained by a single, far-red-detuned mode of a high-Q optical cavity can be efficient despite the large volume…
We demonstrate a double-trap system well suited to study cold collisions between trapped ions and trapped atoms. Using Yb$^+$ ions confined in a Paul trap and Yb atoms in a magneto-optical trap, we investigate charge-exchange collisions of…
Frictionless atom cooling in harmonic traps is formulated as a time-optimal control problem and a synthesis of optimal controlled trajectories is obtained. This work has already been used to determine the minimum time for transition between…
In a neutral atom quantum computer, the qubits are individual neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers. Excitations to Rydberg states form the basis for the entanglement procedure that is at the basis of multi-qubit quantum gates. However,…
We present a novel optical cooling scheme that relies on hyperfine dark states to enhance loading and cooling atoms inside deep optical dipole traps. We demonstrate a seven-fold increase in the number of atoms loaded in the conservative…
We demonstrate the lossless state-selective detection of a single rubidium 87 atom trapped in an optical tweezer. This detection is analogous to the one used on trapped ions. After preparation in either a dark or bright state, we probe the…
We demonstrate single-shot imaging and narrow-line cooling of individual alkaline earth atoms in optical tweezers; specifically, strontium-88 atoms trapped in $515.2~\text{nm}$ light. We achieve high-fidelity single-atom-resolved imaging by…
We introduce a new method, rooted in estimation theory, to detect individual atoms in site-resolved images of microtrap arrays, such as optical lattices or optical tweezers arrays. Using labelled test images, we demonstrate drastic…
Two recent experiments have reported the trapping of individual atoms inside optical resonators by the mechanical forces associated with single photons [Hood et al., Science 287, 1447 (2000) and Pinkse et al., Nature 404, 365 (2000)]. Here…
We studied a single atom trapped in an optical tweezer interacting with a thermal bath of ultracold atoms of a different species. Because of the collisions between the trapped atom and the bath atoms, the trapped atom undergoes changes in…