Narrow-line imaging of single strontium atoms in shallow optical tweezers (2202.05727v1)

Abstract: Single strontium atoms held in optical tweezers have so far only been imaged using the broad $^{1\hspace{-0.3ex}}S_0$-$^{1\hspace{-0.3ex}}P_1$ transition. For Yb, use of the narrow (183 kHz-wide) $^{1\hspace{-0.3ex}}S_0$-$^{3\hspace{-0.3ex}}P_1$ transition for simultaneous imaging and cooling has been demonstrated in tweezers with a magic wavelength for the imaging transition. We demonstrate high-fidelity imaging of single Sr atoms using its even narrower (7.4 kHz-wide) $^{1\hspace{-0.3ex}}S_0$ - $^{3\hspace{-0.3ex}}P_1$ transition. The atoms are trapped in \textit{non}-magic-wavelength tweezers. We detect the photons scattered during Sisyphus cooling, thus keeping the atoms near the motional ground state of the tweezer throughout imaging. The fidelity of detection is 0.9991(4) with a survival probability of 0.97(2). An atom in a tweezer can be held under imaging conditions for 79(3) seconds allowing for hundreds of images to be taken, limited mainly by background gas collisions. We detect atoms in an arrary of 36 tweezers with 813.4-nm light and trap depths of 135(20) $\mu$K. This trap depth is three times shallower than typically used for imaging on the broad $^{1\hspace{-0.3ex}}S_0$ - $^{1\hspace{-0.3ex}}P_1$ transition. Narrow-line imaging opens the possibility to even further reduce this trap depth, as long as all trap frequencies are kept larger than the imaging transition linewidth. Imaging using a narrow-linewidth transition in a non-magic-wavelength tweezer also allows for selective imaging of a given tweezer. As a demonstration, we selectively image (hide) a single tweezer from the array. This provides a useful tool for quantum error correction protocols.