Illustration from Scientific Research

The atomic array and laser beam orientations. The transmission (reflection) probe beam is overlapped and co- (counter-)propagating with the control beam along - z (+ z ). We monitor the transmissive (reflective) response of the atomic array by imaging the probe beam onto an EMCCD, while filtering out the control beam. The atomic array is aligned in the x- y plane, containing up to 1,500 atoms in an atomic Mott insulator of a single atom per lattice site in state |g> , while a single ancilla atom is prepared in a different hyperfine state |g'> at a target lattice site at the centre of the array. We control the Rydberg excitation of the ancilla using an ultraviolet (UV) beam propagating in the atomic plane. The inset shows an exemplary site-resolved fluorescence image of a Mott insulator with 1,500 atoms.

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