Inserting two atoms into a single optical micropotential
Y. Miroshnychenko, W. Alt, I. Dotsenko, L. Förster, M. Khudaverdyan, D. Meschede, S. Reick, A. Rauschenbeutel
Phys. Rev. Lett. 97 243003 (2006)
Abstract
We recently demonstrated that strings of trapped atoms inside a standing wave optical dipole trap can be rearranged using optical tweezers [Y. Miroshnychenko et al., Nature, in press (2006)]. This technique allows us to actively set the interatomic separations on the scale of the individual trapping potential wells. Here, we use such a distance-control operation to insert two atoms into the same potential well. The detected success rate of this manipulation is 16(+4/-3) %, in agreement with the predictions of a theoretical model based on our independently determined experimental parameters.