By recording the fluorescence fraction of the cold atoms remaining in the magneto-optical trap （MOT） as a function of the release time, the release-and-recapture （R＆R） method is utilized to evaluate the effective temperature of the cold atomic ensemble. We prepare a single atom in a large-magnetic-gradient MOT and then transfer the trapped single atom into a 1064-nm microscopic optical tweezer. The energy of the single atom trapped in the tweezer is further reduced by polarization gradient cooling （PGC） and the effective temperature is evaluated by extending the R-R technique to a single atom tweezer. The typical effective temperature of a single atom in the tweezer is improved from about 105 μK to about 17 μK by applying the optimum PGC phase.
In our experiment, a single cesium atom prepared in a large-magnetic-gradient magneto optical trap （MOT） can be efficiently transferred into a 1064-nm far-off-resonance microscopic optical dipole trap （FORT）. The efficient transfer of the single atom between the two traps is used to determine the trapping lifetime and the effective temperature of the single atom in FORT. The typical trapping lifetime has been improved from ~ 6.9 s to ~ 130 s by decreasing the background pressure from 1 × 10^-10 Torr to ~ 2 × 10^-11 Torr and applying one-shot 10-ms laser cooling phase. We also theoretically investigate the dependence of trapping lifetimes of a single atom in a FORT on trap parameters based on the FORT beam＇s intensity noise induced heating. Numerical simulations show that the heating depends on the FORT beam＇s waist size and the trap depth. The trapping time can be predicted based on effective temperature measurement of a single atom in the FORT and the intensity noise spectra of the FORT beam. These experimental results are found to be in agreement with the predictions of the heating model.
Jun HE Bao-dong YANG Yong-jie CHENG Tian-cai ZHANG Jun-min WANG
