Single-atom trapping and transport in DMD-controlled optical tweezers

TL;DR

This paper presents a fast, reconfigurable method for trapping and moving single neutral atoms using a DMD-controlled optical tweezer system, enabling rapid manipulation in quantum experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a high-speed DMD-based holographic optical tweezer system capable of trapping and transporting single atoms with unprecedented speed and flexibility.

Findings

Trapped up to 20 atoms in static arrays.

Transported individual atoms over 25 μm.

Achieved atom transport with and without laser cooling.

Abstract

We demonstrate the trapping and manipulation of single neutral atoms in reconfigurable arrays of optical tweezers. Our approach offers unparalleled speed by using a Texas Instruments Digital Micro-mirror Device (DMD) as a holographic amplitude modulator with a frame rate of 20,000 per second. We show the trapping of static arrays of up to 20 atoms, as well as transport of individually selected atoms over a distance of 25{\mu}m with laser cooling and 4{\mu}m without. We discuss the limitations of the technique and the scope for technical improvements.