Optical Tweezer Arrays of Erbium Atoms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first trapping and imaging of single erbium atoms in optical tweezer arrays, enabling advanced quantum simulation studies with ultracold erbium.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for trapping, cooling, and imaging erbium atoms in optical tweezers, including achieving magic trapping conditions and high-fidelity fluorescence imaging.

Findings

Successful trapping of single erbium atoms in tweezer arrays.

Achieved deep cooling and continuous imaging without recoil suppression.

Observed pair-ejection rates consistent with semiclassical models.

Abstract

We present the first successful trapping of single erbium atoms in an array of optical tweezers. Using a single narrow-line optical transition, we achieve deep cooling for direct tweezer loading, pairwise ejection, and continous imaging without additional recoil suppression techniques. Our tweezer wavelength choice enables us to reach the magic trapping condition by tuning the ellipticity of the trapping light. Additionally, we implement an ultrafast high-fidelity fluorescence imaging scheme using a broad transition, allowing time-resolved study of the tweezer population dynamics from many to single atoms during light-assisted collisions. In particular, we extract a pair-ejection rate that qualitatively agrees with the semiclassical predictions by the Gallagher-Pritchard model. This work represents a promising starting point for the exploration of erbium as a powerful resource for quantum simulation in optical tweezers.