Atoms are automatically drawn to the centers of these spots, forming an array in a single plane (see Viewpoint: Alkaline Atoms Held with Optical Tweezers). To form a tweezer array, researchers pass a single laser beam through a microlens array (or similar device) that focuses the beam into a 2D pattern of multiple bright spots. Optical tweezers offer an alternative method for trapping and controlling atoms. However, the spacing between atoms is fixed by the wavelength of the light, which can limit the control researchers have over the atomic behavior. These cold-atom systems have been used as precision clocks and as models of condensed-matter systems. The standard method for creating them involves crossing six laser beams to generate a 3D interference pattern that traps atoms in either the high- or low-intensity spots (see Synopsis: Pinpointing Qubits in a 3D Lattice).
Such a large atom arrangement could eventually serve as a platform for a quantum computer with error correction.ģD optical lattices have been around for decades. The team’s 3D tweezer lattice has sites for 10,000 atoms, but with some straightforward modifications, the system could reach 100,000 atoms. Now a team has created a new type of 3D lattice by combining optical tweezers-points of focused light that trap atoms-with an optical phenomenon known as the Talbot effect. Researchers have produced 3D lattices of trapped atoms for possible quantum computing tasks, but the standard technology doesn’t allow much control over atom spacing. Thanks to the Talbot effect, the focal plane pattern is reproduced at other parallel planes-also seen in cross section as vertical lines of red or white dots. Light passing through the array creates a plane of bright spots at the focal plane, which appears here in cross section as a vertical line with two red dots, right of center. The calculated intensity pattern from laser light after transmission through a microlens array, as seen in a vertical slice along the laser beam axis.
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