Single-atom trapping and transport in DMD-controlled optical tweezers

Abstract

We demonstrate the trapping and manipulation of single neutral atoms in reconfigurable arrays of optical tweezers. Our approach offers unparalleled speed by using a Texas Instruments Digital Micro-mirror Device (DMD) as a holographic amplitude modulator with a frame rate of 20,000 per second. We show the trapping of static arrays of up to 20 atoms, as well as transport of individually selected atoms over a distance of 25μm with laser cooling and 4μm without. We discuss the limitations of the technique and the scope for technical improvements.