State-dependent, addressable subwavelength lattices with cold atoms

TL;DR

This paper explores creating subwavelength, state-dependent atomic lattices using adiabatic potentials, enabling local control and readout with faster dynamics and reduced losses, exemplified with ytterbium atoms.

Contribution

It introduces a method for generating addressable, subwavelength lattices with state-dependent control, including detailed analysis of limitations and loss mitigation strategies.

Findings

Lattice potentials can be made exponentially stable by increasing laser power.

State-dependent lattices are feasible with alkaline-earth-like atoms such as $^{171}$Yb.

Non-adiabatic losses can be minimized to enable practical implementations.

Abstract

We discuss how adiabatic potentials can be used to create addressable lattices on a subwavelength scale, which can be used as a tool for local operations and readout within a lattice substructure, while taking advantage of the faster timescales and higher energy and temperature scales determined by the shorter lattice spacing. For alkaline-earth-like atoms with non-zero nuclear spin, these potentials can be made state dependent, for which we give specific examples with $^{171}$Yb atoms. We discuss in detail the limitations in generating the lattice potentials, in particular non-adiabatic losses, and show that the loss rates can always be made exponentially small by increasing the laser power.