title: Low-Entropy States of Neutral Atoms in Polarization-Synthesized Optical Lattices.
abstract: We create low-entropy states of neutral atoms by utilizing a conceptually new optical-lattice technique that relies on a high-precision, high-bandwidth synthesis of light polarization. Polarization-synthesized optical lattices provide two fully controllable optical lattice potentials, each of them confining only atoms in either one of the two long-lived hyperfine states. By employing one lattice as the storage register and the other one as the shift register, we provide a proof of concept using four atoms that selected regions of the periodic potential can be filled with one particle per site. We expect that our results can be scaled up to thousands of atoms by employing an atom-sorting algorithm with logarithmic complexity, which is enabled by polarization-synthesized optical lattices. Vibrational entropy is subsequently removed by sideband cooling methods. Our results pave the way for a bottom-up approach to creating ultralow-entropy states of a many-body system.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstrasse 8, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Robens
authors.affiliation: Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstrasse 8, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zopes
authors.affiliation: Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstrasse 8, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Alt
authors.affiliation: Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstrasse 8, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brakhane
authors.affiliation: Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstrasse 8, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Meschede
authors.affiliation: Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstrasse 8, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alberti