Crossed vortex bottle beam trap for single-atom qubits

We demonstrate trapping and quantum state control of single cesium atoms in a 532 nm wavelength bottle beam trap. The three-dimensional trap is formed by crossing two unit charge vortex beams. Single atoms are loaded with 50% probability directly from a magneto-optical trap. We achieve a trapping lifetime of up to 6 s and demonstrate fast Rabi oscillations with a coherence time of T-2 similar to 43 +/- 9 ms. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America