Microwave Control of Atomic Motion in Optical Lattices

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates precise microwave control of neutral atoms in optical lattices, enabling efficient cooling, coherent state manipulation, and potential for long-range quantum transport.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control atomic motion via microwave-induced spin transitions with spatially offset potentials, achieving high-fidelity cooling and state manipulation.

Findings

Achieved 97% ground state population through sideband cooling.

Demonstrated coherent Rabi oscillations between vibrational states.

Showed potential for long-range quantum transport in shallow lattices.

Abstract

We control the quantum mechanical motion of neutral atoms in an optical lattice by driving microwave transitions between spin states whose trapping potentials are spatially offset. Control of this offset with nanometer precision allows for adjustment of the coupling strength between different motional states, analogous to an adjustable effective Lamb-Dicke factor. This is used both for efficient one-dimensional sideband cooling of individual atoms to a vibrational ground state population of 97%, and to drive coherent Rabi oscillation between arbitrary pairs of vibrational states. We further show that microwaves can drive well resolved transitions between motional states in maximally offset, shallow lattices, and thus in principle allow for coherent control of long range quantum transport.