Quantum Sensing in Tweezer Arrays: Optical Magnetometry on an Individual-Atom Sensor Grid

TL;DR

This paper presents a scalable quantum sensing platform using optical tweezer arrays of individual atoms for high-resolution magnetic field mapping, demonstrating micrometer spatial resolution and sensitive measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a large-scale, reconfigurable atom-based sensor array capable of high-resolution magnetic field imaging with single-atom precision.

Findings

Achieved micrometer-scale spatial resolution in magnetic field mapping.

Demonstrated a field resolution of approximately 98 nanotesla.

Estimated sensor sensitivity at 25 microtesla per root Hz.

Abstract

We implement a scalable platform for quantum sensing comprising hundreds of sites capable of holding individual laser-cooled atoms and demonstrate the applicability of this single-quantum-system sensor array to magnetic-field mapping on a two-dimensional grid. With each atom being confined in an optical tweezer within an area of 0.5 micrometer^2 at mutual separations of 7.0(2) micrometer, we obtain micrometer-scale spatial resolution and highly parallelized operation. An additional steerable optical tweezer allows for a rearrangement of atoms within the grid and enables single-atom scanning microscopy with sub-micron resolution. This individual-atom sensor platform finds its immediate application in mapping an externally applied DC gradient magnetic field. In a Ramsey-type measurement, we obtain a field resolution of 98(29) nanotesla. We estimate the sensitivity to 25 microtesla/Hz^1/2.