PROGRESS TOWARD THE FESHBACH ASSOCIATION OF LITHIUM AND CESIUM ATOMS IN OPTICAL TWEEZER ARRAYS

Abstract: The field of singly-trapped ultracold molecules has expanded rapidly in the past few years. With the introduction of fast tweezer rearrangement and the demonstrated viability of ground-state preparation by magneto-association coupled with STIRAP, powerful and robust arrays of ultracold molecules for quantum information science are finally being realized after decades of research. This dissertation primarily discusses the engineering associated with the conventional path toward creating arrays of LiCs molecules trapped in optical tweezers. Scientific results of the successful trapping and sub-doppler cooling of both atoms to release-recapture temperatures of less than 100uK are discussed. Discussed is also recent unpublished work focusing on atomic state preparation in optical tweezers, merging of the two species, and observation of Feshbach resonances of the pairs of atoms.