Blinking optical tweezers for atom rearrangements

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an energy-efficient approach for holding and rearranging an N x M atom array using only N optical tweezers. This is achieved through the sequential release and recapture of M single atoms by a single optical tweezer. By employing a stroboscopic harmonic potential, the phase-space quadrature of the atom's probability distribution can be maintained under this "blinking" potential, provided the trap frequency meets the appropriate conditions. Proof-of-principle experiments confirm that a blinking tweezer can trap M atoms while requiring only 1 / M of the power per atom, and it can even facilitate rearrangement, demonstrated with arrays of up to M = 9 atoms. This method offers a scalable and reconfigurable platform for optical tweezer arrays, crucial for the preparation and manipulation of large-scale qubit systems.