Controllable atomic collision in a tight optical dipole trap

Abstract

Single atoms are interesting candidates for studying quantum optics and quantum information processing. Recently, trapping and manipulation of single atoms using tight optical dipole traps have generated considerable interest. Here we report an experimental investigation of the dynamics of atoms in a modified optical dipole trap with a backward propagating dipole trap beam, where a change in the two-atom collision rate by six times has been achieved. The theoretical model presented gives a prediction of high probabilities of few-atom loading rates under proper experimental conditions. This work provides an alternative approach to the control of the few-atom dynamics in a dipole trap and the study of the collective quantum optical effects of a few atoms.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• An atom-by-atom assembler of defect-free arbitrary 2d atomic arrays
• Demonstration of multi-qubit entanglement and algorithms on a programmable neutral atom quantum computer
• Collective shift in resonant light scattering by a one-dimensional atomic chain
• Efficient preparation of 2D defect-free atom arrays with near-fewest sorting-atom moves
• Polarization gradient cooling of single atoms in optical dipole traps