Trapping and imaging single dysprosium atoms in optical tweezer arrays

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the trapping and imaging of single dysprosium atoms in optical tweezer arrays, leveraging their unique anisotropic light shifts to enable high-fidelity detection for quantum physics applications.

Contribution

It introduces a method to trap and image single lanthanide atoms using tailored light shifts in optical tweezers, enabling new quantum research avenues.

Findings

Successful trapping and imaging of single dysprosium atoms.

Use of anisotropic light shifts to achieve near-magic trapping conditions.

Potential for advanced quantum physics experiments with lanthanides.

Abstract

We report the preparation and observation of single atoms of dysprosium in arrays of optical tweezers with a wavelength of 532 nm imaged on the intercombination line at 626 nm. We use the anisotropic light shift specific to lanthanides and in particular a large difference in tensor and vector polarizabilities between the ground and excited states to tune the differential light shift and produce tweezers in near-magic or magic polarization. This allows us to find a regime where single atoms can be produced and imaged. Using the tweezer array toolbox to manipulate lanthanides will open new research directions for quantum physics studies by taking advantage of their rich spectrum, large spin and magnetic dipole moment.