Quantum Science with Tweezer Arrays

Recently, cold atoms in optical tweezer arrays have emerged as a versatile platform for quantum science experiments. I will review these developments and give an update on ongoing experiments at Caltech. Specifically, I will introduce atom-by-atom assembly [1] as a fast and simple method to generate defect-free atomic arrays and I will summarize Rydberg-based quantum simulation of spin models [2]. While already reaching competitive results, these systems are still in their infancy and limitations in coherence, detection fidelity, trapping, and scalability remain. I will outline how we can improve on some of these issues and open new avenues in quantum metrology by using alkaline earth atoms, followed by an overview of recent results along these lines: 1) Single atom imaging with ~0.9999 fidelity [3] and narrow-line, close to ground state cooling [4], 2) Preliminary results on implementing high-fidelity Rydberg excitation and detection, and 3) Demonstration of an optical clock based on tweezer arrays [5].

[1] Endres et al., Science 354, 1024 (2016)

[2] Bernien et al., Nature 551, 579, (2017)

[3] Covey et. al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 173201 (2019)

[4] Cooper et al., Phys. Rev. X 8, 041055 (2018)

[5] Madjarov et al., arXiv:1908.05619 (2019), PRX accepted