Efficient extension of the trapping lifetime of single atoms in an optical tweezer by laser cooling

Jun He, Baodong Yang, Tiancai Zhang and Junmin Wang
Optical tweezers have become powerful tools for the confinement and manipulation of neutral atoms, molecules, mesoscopic biological molecules and living cells. In our experiment, a single caesium atom was prepared in a large-magnetic-gradient magneto-optical trap (MOT). It was then efficiently transferred back and forth between the MOT and a 1064 nm microscopic optical tweezer. The atomic transfer between the MOT and the tweezer can be employed to measure the trapping lifetime and the energy distribution of the single atom in the tweezer. In order to extend the trapping lifetime, laser cooling is used to decrease the atom's kinetic energy. The trapping lifetime was extended from ~75 to ~130 s by applying a 10 ms laser cooling phase just after the single atom is transferred into the tweezer.

DOI