Three-Dimensional Trapping of Individual Rydberg Atoms in Ponderomotive Bottle Beam Traps

Abstract

We demonstrate three-dimensional trapping of individual Rydberg atoms in holographic optical bottle beam traps. Starting with cold, ground-state ^{87}Rb atoms held in standard optical tweezers, we excite them to nS_{1/2}, nP_{1/2}, or nD_{3/2} Rydberg states and transfer them to a hollow trap at 850 nm. For principal quantum numbers 60≤n≤90, the measured trapping time coincides with the Rydberg state lifetime in a 300 K environment. We show that these traps are compatible with quantum information and simulation tasks by performing single qubit microwave Rabi flopping, as well as by measuring the interaction-induced, coherent spin-exchange dynamics between two trapped Rydberg atoms separated by 40 μm. These results will find applications in the realization of high-fidelity quantum simulations and quantum logic operations with Rydberg atoms.