Eliminating light shifts in single-atom optical traps

Understand

Microscopically controlled neutral atoms in optical tweezers and lattices have led to exciting advances in the study of quantum information and quantum many-body systems.

• The light shifts of atomic levels from the trapping potential in these systems can result in detrimental effects such as fluctuating dipole force heating, inhomogeneous detunings, and inhibition of laser cooling, which limits the atomic species that can be manipulated.
• In particular, these light shifts can be large enough to prevent loading into optical tweezers directly from a magneto-optical trap.
• We present a general solution to these limitations by loading, cooling, and imaging single atoms with temporally alternating beams.