In this thesis, I describe the development of and scientific results from a new platform for\ creating ultracold atoms via single-atom control. We employ Raman-sideband cooling to isolated\ bosonic 87Rb atoms confined within sub-micron optical tweezers, yielding single particle three dimensional\ ground-state fractions of 90\%. We create multiple, independent, mobile optical tweezers,\ which simultaneously allows multi-particle studies with single-atom microscopy and highly\ tunable length-scales. We employ this toolset in both of the main experiments discussed in this\ thesis. In one experiment, we observe Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of two bosonic atoms, each of\ which is independently prepared in spatially separated optical tweezers. The interference we observe\ is a direct consequence of the purity of the single particle quantum states produced, and the\ indistinguishability of the atoms. In a second experiment, we introduce a spin-degree of freedom\ and exploit spin-exchange dynamics, driven by the quantum-statistics of the particles, to create a\ spin-entangled pair of spatially separated atoms
CY - Boulder, CO DA - 11-2015 N2 -In this thesis, I describe the development of and scientific results from a new platform for\ creating ultracold atoms via single-atom control. We employ Raman-sideband cooling to isolated\ bosonic 87Rb atoms confined within sub-micron optical tweezers, yielding single particle three dimensional\ ground-state fractions of 90\%. We create multiple, independent, mobile optical tweezers,\ which simultaneously allows multi-particle studies with single-atom microscopy and highly\ tunable length-scales. We employ this toolset in both of the main experiments discussed in this\ thesis. In one experiment, we observe Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of two bosonic atoms, each of\ which is independently prepared in spatially separated optical tweezers. The interference we observe\ is a direct consequence of the purity of the single particle quantum states produced, and the\ indistinguishability of the atoms. In a second experiment, we introduce a spin-degree of freedom\ and exploit spin-exchange dynamics, driven by the quantum-statistics of the particles, to create a\ spin-entangled pair of spatially separated atoms
PB - University of Colorado Boulder PP - Boulder, CO PY - 2015 EP - 266 TI - Laser cooling atoms to indistinguishability: Atomic Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and entanglement through spin exchange VL - Ph.D. ER -