An omniscient Maxwell's demon
arXiv:1806.02403 · doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0458-7
Abstract
We demonstrate highly filled 3D arrays of neutral atoms by moving individual atoms in a 3D optical lattice. Starting from a randomly half-filled 5x5x5 optical lattice of Cesium atoms, a sorting algorithm calculates and implements a sequence of high fidelity targeted state flips and state dependent motion steps to fill a sub-lattice in real time. We achieve a filling fraction of ~97% and a perfect filling rate of 30%. With 89% of the atoms cooled to the 3D vibrational ground state, the sorting procedure reduces the configurational entropy by a factor of 8 and the total system entropy by a factor of 2.44. The sorting process is analogous to a Maxwell's demon.
19 pages, 4 figures, Methods section, 2 extended data figures