Single-atom imaging of 173Yb in optical tweezers loaded by a five-beam magneto-optical trap
Year: 2025
Authors: Karim O.A., Falconi T.A.M., Panza R., Liu W., Scazza F.
Autors Affiliation: Consiglio Nazl Ric CNR INO, Ist Nazl Ott, I-34149 Trieste, Italy; Univ Naples Federico II, Dept Phys, I-80138 Naples, Italy; Univ Trieste, Dept Phys, I-34127 Trieste, Italy.
Abstract: We report on the trapping and imaging of individual ytterbium atoms in arrays of optical tweezers, loaded from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) formed by only five beams in an orthogonal configuration. In our five-beam MOT, operating on the narrow 1S 0 -> 3 P 1 intercombination transition, gravity balances the radiation pressure of a single upward-directed beam. This approach enables efficient trapping and cooling of the most common ytterbium isotopes ( 171 Yb, 173Yb and 174Yb) to less than or similar to 20 mu K at densities similar to 1011 atoms cm-3 within less than one second. This configuration allows for significantly reducing the complexity of the optical setup, potentially benefiting any ytterbium-atom based quantum science platform leveraging single-atom microscopy, from quantum processors to novel optical clocks. We then demonstrate the first single-atom-resolved imaging of the fermionic, large-spin isotope 173Yb ( I=5/2), employing a two-color imaging scheme that does not rely on magic-wavelength trapping. We achieve a high single-atom imaging fidelity of 99.96(1)% and a large survival probability of 98.5(2)%, despite large differential light shifts affecting all nuclear spin sublevels of the excited 3 P 1 state involved in the cooling transition. The demonstrated capabilities will play a key role in future quantum simulations and computing applications with 173Yb arrays.
Journal/Review: QUANTUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Volume: 10 (4) Pages from: 45019-1 to: 45019-18
More Information: We thank M Aidelsburger, N Bruno, G Cappellini, N Darkwah Oppong, F Ferlaino, T Hoehn, G Roati and L Tarruell for useful discussions, and M. Marinelli for a careful reading of this manuscript. We also thank G Brajnik, G Cautero, A Fondacaro, A Martin, F Salvador, A Trenkwalder and the Instrumentation and Detectors Laboratory of Elettra Sincrotrone for technical support during the construction of the experimental apparatus, and F Barbuio, G Bartolini, G Tazzoli, S Vigneri, and J Wang for participating in the initial setting up of the experiment. This work has received financial support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project OrbiDynaMIQs, GA No. 949438), and from the Italian MUR under the FARE 2020 programme (project FastOrbit, Prot. R20WNHFNKF). This work has also received funding from the European Union under the Horizon Europe program HORIZON-CL4-2022-QUANTUM-02-SGA (project PASQuanS2.1, GA No. 101113690), and by the Next Generation EU (Missione 4, Componente 1) under the MUR PRIN 2022 programme (project CoQuS, Prot. 2022ATM8FY) and the PNRR MUR Project PE0000023-NQSTI.KeyWords: cold atoms; optical tweezers; ytterbium; magneto-optical trap; single-atom imaging; atom microscopy; alkaline earth atomsDOI: 10.1088/2058-9565/adf7cf
