Optical tweezers for manipulating single atoms

Our goal is to realize a scalable cluster of entangled atoms trapped in fully controllable arrays of optical tweezers. The optical-tweezers array we are currently implementing consists of a freely configurable two-dimensional array of dipole-force traps, which we obtain by imaging the intensity pattern from a spatial-light modulator (SLM) into our apparatus. In every dipole trap, the intensity gradient gives rise to a force that confines the atom to an effective potential well.