Related papers: Diffraction limited optics for single atom manipul…
We focus down an ion beam consisting of single 40Ca+ ions to a spot size of a few mum using an einzel-lens. Starting from a segmented linear Paul trap, we have implemented a procedure which allows us to deterministically load a…
We have generated multiple micron-sized optical dipole traps for neutral atoms using holographic techniques with a programmable liquid crystal spatial light modulator. The setup allows the storing of a single atom per trap, and the…
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel optical method for trapping and cooling dielectric nanospheres at (sub)-micron distances from a reflective metallic surface. By translating a tilted mirror towards the focus of a single-beam…
We demonstrate discrimination of ground-state hyperfine manifolds of a cesium atom in an optical tweezer using a simple probe beam with 99.91(2)% detection fidelity and 0.9(2)% detection-driven loss of bright state atoms. Our detection…
Optical tweezers are highly versatile laser traps for neutral microparticles, with fundamental applications in physics and in single molecule cell biology. Force measurements are performed by converting the stiffness response to…
We report the optical imaging of a single atom with nanometer resolution using an adaptive optical alignment technique that is applicable to general optical microscopy. By decomposing the image of a single laser-cooled atom, we identify and…
We present two long-working-distance objective lenses with numerical apertures (NA) of 0.29 and 0.4 for single-atom experiments. The objective lenses are assembled entirely by the commercial on-catalog $\Phi$1'' singlets. Both the…
Optical trapping has proven to be a valuable experimental technique for precisely controlling small dielectric objects. However, due to their very nature, conventional optical traps are diffraction limited and require high intensities to…
Trapped atoms near nanophotonics form an exciting platform for bottom-up synthesis of strongly interacting quantum matter. The ability to induce tunable long-range atom-atom interactions with photons presents an opportunity to explore…
We dispersively interface an ensemble of one thousand atoms trapped in the evanescent field surrounding a tapered optical nanofiber. This method relies on the azimuthally-asymmetric coupling of the ensemble with the evanescent field of an…
We present the first successful trapping of single erbium atoms in an array of optical tweezers. Using a single narrow-line optical transition, we achieve deep cooling for direct tweezer loading, pairwise ejection, and continous imaging…
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…
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 experimental techniques and results related to the optimization and characterization of our nanofiber-based atom trap [Vetsch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 203603 (2010)]. The atoms are confined in an optical lattice which is…
We theoretically develop and experimentally demonstrate a holographic method for imaging cold atoms at the diffraction and photon shot noise limits. Aided by a double point source reference field, a simple iterative algorithm robustly…
High precision spectroscopy on the $2 \ ^3 S \rightarrow 2 \ ^1 S$ transition is possible in ultracold optically trapped helium but the accuracy is limited by the ac-Stark shift induced by the optical dipole trap. To overcome this problem,…
Single atoms trapped in tightly focused optical dipole traps provide an excellent experimental platform for quantum computing, precision measurement, and fundamental physics research. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a novel…
The effect of the dipole-dipole interaction on the far-off-resonance optical dipole trapping scheme is calculated by a mean-field approach. The trapping laser field polarizes the atoms and the accompanying dipole-dipole energy shift deepens…
We report the efficient and fast ($\sim 2\mathrm{Hz}$) preparation of randomly loaded 1D chains of individual $^{87}$Rb atoms and of dense atomic clouds trapped in optical tweezers using a new experimental platform. This platform is…
We report on the experimental realization of an atom optical device, that allows scanning of an atomic beam. We used a time-modulated evanescent wave field above a glass surface to diffract a continuous beam of metastable Neon atoms at…