News
Tue January 1, 2013
Coherence and Raman Sideband Cooling of a Single Atom in an Optical Tweezer
We investigated quantum control of a single atom in a tightly focused optical tweezer trap. We showed that inevitable spatially varying polarization gave rise to significant internal-state decoherence but that the effect could be mitigated by an appropriately chosen magnetic bias field. That enabled Raman sideband cooling of a single atom close to its three-dimensional ground state (vibrational quantum numbers ) even for a trap beam waist as small as w = 900 nm. The small atomic wave packet with
and δz = 270 nm represented a promising starting point for future hybrid quantum systems where atoms were placed in close proximity to surfaces.
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