We demonstrate high-fidelity manipulation of the quantized motion of a single 87Rb atom in an optical tweezer via microwave couplings induced by Stern–Gerlach splitting. The Stern–Gerlach splitting is mediated by polarization gradient of a strongly focused tweezer beam that functions as fictitious magnetic field gradient. The spatial splitting removes the orthogonality of the atomic spatial wavefunctions, thus enables the microwave couplings between the motional states. We obtain coherent Rabi oscillations for up to third-order sideband transitions, in which a high fidelity of larger than 0.99 is obtained for the spin-flip transition on the first order sideband after subtraction of the state preparation and detection error. The Stern–Gerlach splitting is measured at a precision of better than 0.05 nm. This work paves the way for quantum engineering of motional states of single atoms, and may have wide applications in few body physics and ultracold chemistry.

中文翻译：

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通过 Stern-Gerlach 分裂对单个原子的量化运动进行高保真操纵

我们展示了通过 Stern-Gerlach 分裂诱导的微波耦合对光镊中单个 87Rb 原子的量化运动的高保真操纵。Stern-Gerlach 分裂是由强聚焦镊子光束的极化梯度介导的，该光束充当虚拟磁场梯度。空间分裂消除了原子空间波函数的正交性，从而实现了运动状态之间的微波耦合。我们获得了高达三阶边带跃迁的相干 Rabi 振荡，其中在减去状态准备和检测误差后，一阶边带上的自旋翻转跃迁获得了大于 0.99 的高保真度。Stern-Gerlach 分裂的测量精度优于 0.05 nm。