Guariento, Luca (2024) A new setup for single Strontium atoms in Optical Tweezers. [Tesi di dottorato]

Documento PDF guariento_luca_37.pdf Download (28MB)

Abstract

Single neutral atoms trapped in arrays of tightly focused optical dipole traps, called optical tweezers, have become a widespread technology to approach different research fields, ranging from quantum simulation and computation to quantum metrology. This thesis is the result of the work of my three-year PhD, carried out within the Strontium Rydberg Lab group at the University of Florence. I present here the realization of an experimental platform based on individually trapped strontium atoms that will be employed for quantum simulation experiments. In the first chapter, we present a historical overview of the quantum simulation, the experimental state-of-the-art and the main characteristics of strontium atoms. In Chapter 2, atom-light interaction, laser cooling and trapping are discussed, while in Chapter 3 we introduce two crucial elements of the platform, which are optical tweezers and excitations to Rydberg states. In Chapter 4 we present an overview of a few different techniques for imaging single atoms in optical tweezers. The experimental apparatus and laser systems are described in Chapter 5. Finally, the realization of a two-stage Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT) and single-atom trapping are reported in Chapters 6 and 7, respectively. My primary contribution to the experimental setup construction, described in Chapter 5, involved the assembly of the vacuum system and its bakeout, the design of the optical setups for the main laser systems and the design and implementation of a pair of water-cooled coils. After setting-up the experiment, I contributed in realizing a two-stage Magneto-Optical Trap, whose details are reported in Chapter 6, and trapping the atoms in optical tweezers, to which Chapter 7 is dedicated. Chapter 4, which is focused on single-atom detection, introducing two possible new imaging schemes, which could reduce the time required for single-atom detection sequences.

Downloads

Actions (login required)

Modifica documento