Single Atoms in an Optical Dipole Trap: Towards a Deterministic Source of Cold Atoms

Abstract

We describe a simple experimental technique which allows us to store a small and deterministic number of neutral atoms in an optical dipole trap. The desired atom number is prepared in a magneto-optical trap overlapped with a single focused Nd:YAG laser beam. Dipole trap loading efficiency of 100 % and storage times of about one minute have been achieved. We have also prepared atoms in a certain hyperfine state and demonstrated the feasibility of a state-selective detection via resonance fluorescence at the level of a few neutral atoms. A spin relaxation time of the polarized sample of $4.2\pm 0.7$ s has been measured. Possible applications are briefly discussed.

LaTeX 2e, 4 pages, 5 Postscript figures, revised version for publication in PRL. One figure changed for greater clarity

References in corpus (3)

• Trapping of single atoms in cavity QED
• Resolved-sideband Raman cooling to the ground state of an optical lattice
• Counting Cold Collisions

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