Fig. 1
From: Thermally robust spin correlations between two 85Rb atoms in an optical microtrap
Experimental schematics. a (Left) Two optical tweezers are formed using the high-numerical-aperture lens. By reducing the separation between the tweezers and then turning one of the tweezers off, both atoms are transferred into the same optical tweezer, allowing atomic collisions to occur. (Right) Superimposed fluorescent images of the same two atoms showing their relative positions for different experimental stages. After combining the two traps, the individual atomic positions can no longer be resolved. b Spin-changing collisions: Two atoms initially in |0, 0〉 can only couple to \(\hat S\left| {1, - 1} \right\rangle\) (dark arrows) and then to \(\hat S\left| {2, - 2} \right\rangle\) (light arrows), where the symmetrization operator \(\hat S\) is defined in the main text
