Ytterbium tweezer array inside a cavity

In this project we are going to investigate the few-body (~10) and many-body (~100) physics of interacting Yb atoms. The ultra-cold Yb atoms will be placed in an optical cavity which mediates the interaction between the atoms. The use of optical tweezer arrays will give us more control over the atom positioning, in contrast to optical lattices. Nevertheless, we will also have the possibility to investigate the physics of Yb atoms interaction using optical lattices with a 532 nm laser. The idea to use tweezers has been motivated by the fact that Yb has a strong short-wavelength (399 nm) transition which makes it possible to bring the atoms closer than the atom-cavity resonance (556 nm) using optical tweezers, which then enables one to investigate sub-radiance and super-radiance phases of matter alongside other intriguing quantum matter phases.

The vacuum setup design is based on a compact permanent magnet Zeeman slower and 2D-MOT. Science chamber is where the cavity QED setup and 3D-MOT will be placed.