# Three-dimensional trapping of individual Rydberg atoms in ponderomotive bottle beam traps

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates three-dimensional trapping of individual Rydberg atoms using holographic optical bottle beam traps, enabling quantum information processing and simulation with long-lived, highly controllable Rydberg states.

## Contribution

It introduces a method for trapping Rydberg atoms in 3D holographic bottle beam traps compatible with quantum computing tasks.

## Key findings

- Trapping times match Rydberg state lifetimes at room temperature.
- Successful single-qubit Rabi oscillations observed.
- Coherent spin-exchange dynamics measured between two atoms.

## Abstract

We demonstrate three-dimensional trapping of individual Rydberg atoms in holographic optical bottle beam traps. Starting with cold, ground-state $^{87}$Rb atoms held in standard optical tweezers, we excite them to $nS_{1/2}$, $nP_{1/2}$, or $nD_{3/2}$ Rydberg states and transfer them to a hollow trap at 850 nm. For principal quantum numbers $60 \leqslant n \leqslant 90$, the measured trapping time coincides with the Rydberg state lifetime in a 300~K environment. We show that these traps are compatible with quantum information and simulation tasks by performing single qubit microwave Rabi flopping, as well as by measuring the interaction-induced, coherent spin-exchange dynamics between two trapped Rydberg atoms separated by 40 $\mu$m. These results will find applications in the realization of high-fidelity quantum simulations and quantum logic operations with Rydberg atoms.