Manipulation of single neutral atoms in optical lattices

We analyze a scheme to manipulate quantum states of neutral atoms at individual sites of optical lattices using focused laser beams. Spatial distributions of focused laser intensities induce position-dependent energy shifts of hyperfine states, which, combined with microwave radiation, allow selective manipulation of quantum states of individual target atoms. We show that various errors in the manipulation process are suppressed below 10(-4) with properly chosen microwave pulse sequences and laser parameters. A similar idea is also applied to measure quantum states of single atoms in optical lattices.