Microscope objective for imaging atomic strontium with 0.63 micrometer resolution

TL;DR

This paper introduces an affordable, open-source microscope objective for imaging atomic strontium with 0.63 micrometer resolution, suitable for quantum experiments and adaptable to other atomic species.

Contribution

An open-source, off-the-shelf lens-based microscope objective design achieving diffraction-limited imaging of strontium atoms at 461 nm.

Findings

Achieved 0.63 μm resolution in prototype

Design is diffraction-limited at 461 nm and near diffraction-limited at 532 nm

Compatible with various atomic species and Rydberg experiments

Abstract

Imaging and manipulating individual atoms with submicrometer separation can be instrumental for quantum simulation of condensed matter Hamiltonians and quantum computation with neutral atoms. Quantum gas microscope experiments in most cases rely on quite costly solutions. Here we present an open-source design of a microscope objective for atomic strontium consisting solely of off-the-shelf lenses that is diffraction-limited for 461${\,}$nm light. A prototype built with a simple stacking design is measured to have a resolution of 0.63(4)${\,\mu}$m, which is in agreement with the predicted value. This performance, together with the near diffraction-limited performance for 532${\,}$nm light makes this design useful for both quantum gas microscopes and optical tweezer experiments with strontium. Our microscope can easily be adapted to experiments with other atomic species such as erbium, ytterbium, and dysprosium, as well as Rydberg experiments with rubidium.