Enhancing the coherence time of a neutral atom by an optical quartic trap

The coherence time of an optically trapped neutral atom is a crucial parameter for quantum technologies. We found that optical dipole traps with higher-order spatial forms inherently offer lower decoherence rates compared to those with lower-order spatial forms. We formulated the decoherence rate caused by the variance of the differential energy shift and photon jumping rate. Then, we constructed blue-detuned harmonic and quartic optical dipole traps, and experimentally investigated the coherence time of a trapped single cesium atom. Specifically, we demonstrate a significant improvement in the coherence time of a single atom by employing a quartic trap with the same characteristic trap potential and size as its harmonic counterpart–achieving an enhancement from 315 ms to 474 ms. The experimental results qualitatively verified our theory. Our approach provides a novel method to enhance the coherence time of optically trapped neutral atoms.