Optical Tweezer — Single-Atom Release & Recapture

A single cold atom sits trapped at the focus of a tightly-focused laser beam — an optical tweezer, the tool now used to assemble arrays of individual atoms for quantum computing and simulation. This simulator integrates the atom's real motion in the exact Gaussian-beam dipole potential (not a harmonic shortcut), computing true radial and axial trap frequencies from the trap depth and beam waist you set. Give the atom a thermal kick, then run the real "release-recapture" experiment physicists use to measure a trapped atom's temperature: switch the trap off for a chosen flight time and see whether the atom's mechanical energy is still low enough to be caught again when the light returns.