Researchers at CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay in France have recently demonstrated the 3-D trapping of atoms in a Rydberg state inside holographic optical bottle beam traps.
The researchers used laser-cooled atoms that can be manipulated one by one. Manipulating laser-cooled atoms individually enables the creation of artificial, fully controlled systems inspired by solid-state physics, achieving what is referred to as a quantum simulation.
Quantum simulations can be carried out with experimental platforms, including trapped ions and superconducting qubits. The approach adopted by this research team entails the use of neutral atoms trapped in microscopic optical traps (optical tweezers), which are prompted to interact by exciting them to highly excited atomic levels known as Rydberg states.
In the future, the bottle beam-based method used by the scientists could prove very useful in both quantum simulations and quantum logic operations involving Rydberg atoms, enhancing their precision in reproducing physical systems. The researchers are now planning to carry out further studies to investigate potential applications of bottle beam traps.
Their demonstration, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could have important implications for the future realization of quantum simulations. (Phys.org)