Abstract
We demonstrate a cavity-based solution to scale up experiments with ultracold atoms in optical lattices by an order of magnitude over state-of-the-art free-space lattices. Our two-dimensional (2D) optical lattices are created by power-enhancement cavities with large mode waists of and allow us to trap ultracold strontium atoms at a lattice depth of by using only of input light per cavity axis. We characterize these lattices using high-resolution clock spectroscopy and resolve carrier transitions between different vibrational levels. With these spectral features, we locally measure the lattice potential envelope and the sample temperature with a spatial resolution limited only by the optical resolution of the imaging system. The measured ground-band and trap lifetimes are and , respectively, and the lattice frequency (depth) is long-term stable on the megahertz (0.1%) level. Our results show that large, deep, and stable 2D cavity-enhanced lattices can be created at any wavelength and can significantly increase the qubit number for neutral-atom-based quantum simulators, quantum computers, sensors, and optical-lattice clocks.
- Received 15 October 2021
- Revised 20 February 2022
- Accepted 11 July 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.030314
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Popular Summary
We describe a new architecture for scaling up neutral-atom quantum technologies based on our recently developed crossed optical resonators.
As a proof of principle, we trap strontium atoms in two-dimensional optical lattices created by these monolithic in-vacuum resonators and show that the lattices are an order of magnitude larger than state-of-the art free-space lattices. We observe ground-band and lattice lifetimes of 18 s and 60 s, respectively, demonstrating that there are no disadvantages of our approach compared with free space, while allowing the creation of deep optical lattices at wavelengths where the available laser power is limited.
We use high-resolution laser spectroscopy to map the optical potential with 300-parts-per-million precision. By resolving previously unobservable spectral features, the method allows us to precisely measure the relative polarizability of both clock states and to locally measure the sample temperature with a spatial resolution limited only by the imaging-system resolution. Our results lay out a roadmap for scaling optical-lattice clocks, quantum simulators, and quantum computers to tens of thousands of qubits.
