Laser-trapped atoms in strings can be deftly rearranged and the spacing between them precisely adjusted.
Abstract
Laser cooling and trapping techniques allow us to control and manipulate neutral atoms1. Here we rearrange, with submicrometre precision, the positions and ordering of laser-trapped atoms within strings by manipulating individual atoms with optical tweezers2. Strings of equidistant atoms created in this way could serve as a scalable memory for quantum information3.
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Video 1
Sorting a string of three atoms. This animation shows ICCD images of the stepwise rearrangement of a string of three initially randomly separated atoms in the horizontal dipole trap into an equidistant string with 15 µm spacing. The lines on the first picture indicate the axes of the horizontal dipole trap (HDT) and the vertical dipole trap (VDT). The fluorescence spots of the atoms have been coloured for illustration purposes. (MOV 112 kb)
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Miroshnychenko, Y., Alt, W., Dotsenko, I. et al. An atom-sorting machine. Nature 442, 151 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/442151a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/442151a
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