Quantifying Light-assisted Collisions in Optical Tweezers Across the Hyperfine Spectrum

TL;DR

This study measures light-assisted collision rates in optical tweezers across the hyperfine spectrum of rubidium-87, using a novel imaging method to enhance understanding of atomic interactions for quantum applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new imaging technique and connects hyperfine structure effects to molecular potentials, advancing control over cold atom collisions in optical tweezers.

Findings

Measured two-body loss rates across hyperfine states.

Linked collision dynamics to molecular photoassociation potentials.

Demonstrated a new detection method for atom pairs in tweezers.

Abstract

We investigate the role of hyperfine structure in resonant-dipole interactions between two atoms cotrapped in an optical tweezer. Two-body loss rates from light-assisted collisions (LACs) are measured across the $^{87}$Rb hyperfine spectrum and connected to properties of molecular photoassociation potentials via a semiclassical model. To obtain our results, we introduce an imaging technique that leverages repulsive LACs to detect two atoms in a trap, thereby circumventing parity constraints in tweezers. Our findings offer key insights for exploiting hyperfine structure in laser-induced collisions to control cold atoms and molecules in a broad range of quantum science applications.