Related papers: On-demand assembly of optically-levitated nanopart…
We present an experimental technique that enables the preparation of defect-free arrays of 87Rb atoms within a microscopic high-finesse optical standing-wave cavity. By employing optical tweezers, we demonstrate atom positioning with a…
Nanoparticles levitated by optical fields under vacuum conditions have applications in quantum science, the study of nanothermodynamics and precision sensing. Existing techniques for loading optical traps require ambient conditions, and…
Scalable arrays of individual atoms provide an ideal starting point for quantum information and simulation experiments. However, their preparation is often limited by light-assisted collisions (LACs), which typically result in…
Particles that can be trapped in optical tweezers range from tens of microns down to tens of nanometres in size. Interestingly, this size range includes large macromolecules. We show experimentally, in agreement with theoretical…
Rydberg atoms held in optical tweezer arrays combine vibrational and electronic degrees of freedom which can be coupled and manipulated at a microscopic level. This opens opportunities for the quantum simulation of artificial molecular…
The center-of-mass motion of a single optically levitated nanoparticle resembles three uncoupled harmonic oscillators. We show how a suitable modulation of the optical trapping potential can give rise to a coupling between two of these…
We report quantum ground state cooling of a levitated nanoparticle in a room temperature environment. Using coherent scattering into an optical cavity we cool the center of mass motion of a $143$ nm diameter silica particle by more than $7$…
Optical clocks based on atoms and ions achieve exceptional precision and accuracy, with applications to relativistic geodesy, tests of relativity, and searches for dark matter. Achieving such performance requires balancing competing…
One of the biggest challenges of nanotechnology is the fabrication of nano-objects with perfectly controlled properties. Here we employ a focused laser beam both to characterize and to {\it in-situ} modify single semiconductor structures by…
The coupling of individual atoms to a high-finesse optical cavity is precisely controlled and adjusted using a standing-wave dipole-force trap, a challenge for strong atom-cavity coupling. Ultracold Rubidium atoms are first loaded into…
We study the means to prepare and coherently manipulate atomic wave packets in optical lattices, with particular emphasis on alkali atoms in the far-detuned limit. We derive a general, basis independent expression for the lattice operator,…
Arrays of neutral atoms in optical tweezers are widely used in quantum simulation and computation, and precision frequency metrology. The capabilities of these arrays are enhanced by maximising the number of available sites. Here we…
We demonstrate a cavity-based solution to scale up experiments with ultracold atoms in optical lattices by an order of magnitude over state-of-the-art free space lattices. Our two-dimensional optical lattices are created by power…
A promising approach to merge atomic systems with scalable photonics has emerged recently, which consists of trapping cold atoms near tapered nanofibers. Here, we describe a novel technique to achieve strong, coherent coupling between a…
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamond offer a promising platform for quantum information processing due to their room-temperature spin coherence and optical addressability. However, scalable quantum processors remain limited by the…
We describe theoretically a setup in which a tapered optical nanofibre is introduced into an optical lattice potential for cold atoms. Firstly, we consider the disturbance to the geometry of the lattice potential due to scattering of the…
Imaging-based detection of the motion of the levitated nanoparticles complements a widely-used interferometric detection method, providing a precise and robust way to estimate the position of the particle. Here, we show the camera-based…
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) make an ideal one-dimensional (1D) material platform for the exploration of exotic physical phenomena under extremely strong quantum confinement. The 1D character of electrons, phonons and excitons in individual CNTs…
We experimentally squeeze the thermal motional state of an optically levitated nanosphere, by fast switching between two trapping frequencies. The measured phase space distribution of our particle shows the typical shape of a squeezed…
Quantum control of levitated dielectric particles is an emerging subject in quantum optomechanics. A major challenge is to efficiently measure and manipulate the particle's motion at the Heisenberg uncertainty limit. Here we present a…