Low-entropy states of neutral atoms in polarization-synthesized optical lattices

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel optical lattice technique using polarization synthesis to create low-entropy states of neutral atoms, enabling precise control and potential scaling to large atom numbers for quantum many-body systems.

Contribution

The authors demonstrate a new polarization-synthesized optical lattice method that allows selective control of atom states and potential scalability for ultralow-entropy quantum systems.

Findings

Successful proof of concept with four atoms in controlled regions

Potential to scale up to thousands of atoms with efficient sorting

Effective removal of vibrational entropy via sideband cooling

Abstract

We create low-entropy states of neutral atoms by utilizing a conceptually new optical-lattice technique that relies on a high-precision, high-bandwidth synthesis of light polarization. Polarization-synthesized optical lattices provide two fully controllable optical lattice potentials, each of them confining only atoms in either one of the two long-lived hyperfine states. By employing one lattice as the storage register and the other one as the shift register, we provide a proof of concept using four atoms that selected regions of the periodic potential can be filled with one particle per site. We expect that our results can be scaled up to thousands of atoms by employing a atom-sorting algorithm with logarithmic complexity, which is enabled by polarization-synthesized optical lattices. Vibrational entropy is subsequently removed by sideband cooling methods. Our results pave the way for a bottom-up approach to creating ultralow-entropy states of a many-body system.