Related papers: Eliminating light shifts in single-atom optical tr…

We propose an alternative method to laser cooling. Our approach utilizes the extreme brightness of a supersonic atomic beam, and the adiabatic atomic coilgun to slow atoms in the beam or to bring them to rest. We show how internal-state…

Optical tweezers use laser light to trap and move microscopic particles in space. Here we demonstrate a similar control over ultrashort light pulses, but in time. Our experiment involves temporal cavity solitons that are stored in a passive…

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…

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…

Optical tweezers are a powerful tool for the precise positioning of a variety of small objects, including single neutral atoms. Once trapped, atoms can be cooled to the motional ground state of the tweezers. For a more advanced control of…

We report on the trapping of single Rb atoms in tunable arrays of optical tweezers in a cryogenic environment at $\sim 4$ K. We describe the design and construction of the experimental apparatus, based on a custom-made, UHV compatible,…

We implement and demonstrate the effectiveness of a cooling scheme using a moving, all-optical, one-way barrier to cool a sample of $^{87}$Rb atoms, achieving nearly a factor of 2 reduction in temperature. The one-way barrier, composed of…

Optical tweezers is a very well-established technique that has developed into a standard tool for trapping and manipulating micron and submicron particles with great success in the last decades. Although the nature of light enforces…

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 study the dynamics of atoms in optical traps when exposed to laser cooling light that induces light-assisted collisions. We experimentally prepare individual atom pairs and observe their evolution. Due to the simplicity of the system…

We report on the implementation of an optical tweezer system for controlled transport of ultracold atoms along a narrow, static confinement channel. The tweezer system is based on high-efficiency acousto-optical deflectors and offers…

We investigate the photoassociation dynamics of exactly two laser-cooled $^{85}$Rb atoms in an optical tweezer and reveal fundamentally different behavior to photoassociation in many-atom ensembles. We observe non-exponential decay in our…

We review novel methods to investigate, control and manipulate neutral atoms in optical lattices. These setups allow unprecedented quantum control over large numbers of atoms and thus are very promising for applications in quantum…

We study resolved sideband laser cooling of a one-dimensional optical lattice with one atom per site, and in particular the effect of the dipole interaction between radiating atoms. For simplicity, we consider the case where only a single…

We propose to repeatedly load laser-cooled molecules into optical tweezers, and transfer them to storage states that are rotationally excited by two additional quanta. Collisional loss of molecules in these storage states is suppressed, and…

We demonstrate the possibility of energy-selective removal of cold atoms from a tight optical trap by means of parametric excitation of the trap vibrational modes. Taking advantage of the anharmonicity of the trap potential, we selectively…

We present an optical approach to compensating for spatially varying ac-Stark shifts that appear on atomic ensembles subject to strong optical control or trapping fields. The introduction of an additional weak light field produces an…

We analyze a scheme to manipulate quantum states of neutral atoms at individual sites of optical lattices using focused laser beams. Spatial distributions of focused laser intensities induce position-dependent energy shifts of hyperfine…

We demonstrate the ability to load, cool and detect singly-charged calcium ions in a surface electrode trap using only visible and infrared lasers for the trapped-ion control. As opposed to the standard methods of cooling using…

Arrays of single ultracold molecules promise to be a powerful platform for many applications ranging from quantum simulation to precision measurement. Here we report on the creation of an optical tweezer array of single ultracold CaF…