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High Density Mesoscopic Atom Clouds in a Holographic Atom Trap

J. Sebby-Strabley·R. T. R. Newell·J. O. Day·E. Brekke·T. G. Walker
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Abstract

We demonstrate the production of micron-sized high density atom clouds of interest for meso- scopic quantum information processing. We evaporate atoms from 60 microK, 3x10^14 atoms/cm^3 samples contained in a highly anisotropic optical lattice formed by interfering di racted beams from a holographic phase plate. After evaporating to 1 microK by lowering the con ning potential, in less than a second the atom density reduces to 8x10^13 cm^- 3 at a phase space density approaching unity. Adiabatic recompression of the atoms then increases the density to levels in excess of 1x10^15 cm^-3. The resulting clouds are typically 8 microns in the longest dimension. Such samples are small enough to enable mesoscopic quantum manipulation using Rydberg blockade and have the high densities required to investigate new collision phenomena.

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J. Sebby-Strabley, R. T. R. Newell, J. O. Day, E. Brekke, T. G. Walker. 2004-08-05. High Density Mesoscopic Atom Clouds in a Holographic Atom Trap. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.71.021401

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