A technique for individual atom delivery into a crossed vortex bottle beam trap using a dynamic 1D optical lattice
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Updated: Mar 9, 2026

Experimental Methods for Trapping Ions Using Microfabricated Surface Ion Traps
Published on: August 17, 2017
Brad A Dinardo1, Dana Z Anderson1
1JILA, University of Colorado, and National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA.
Abstract:
We describe a system for loading a single atom from a reservoir into a blue-detuned crossed vortex bottle beam trap using a dynamic 1D optical lattice. The lattice beams are frequency chirped using acousto-optic modulators, which causes the lattice to move along its axial direction and behave like an optical conveyor belt. A stationary lattice is initially loaded with approximately 6000 atoms from a reservoir, and the conveyor belt transports them 1.1 mm from the reservoir to a bottle beam trap, where a single atom is loaded via light-assisted collisions. Photon counting data confirm that an atom can be delivered and loaded into the bottle beam trap 13.1% of the time.

