Optical tweezers for a bottom-up assembly of few-atom systems

Abstract

Tightly focused laser beams form optical tweezers that can hold and manipulate individual atoms. They give superb control over microscopic quantum systems and have paved the way for bottom up assembly of few-atom systems. Such assembled systems provide an ideal starting point for many fundamental studies of atomic interactions and few-atom phenomena. Here we review the present stage of these fields, as well as some of the basic experimental techniques required for these experiments Figure from [74].