No Arabic abstract
Atomic cadmium ions are loaded into radiofrequency ion traps by photoionization of atoms in a cadmium vapor with ultrafast laser pulses. The photoionization is driven through an intermediate atomic resonance with a frequency-quadrupled mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser that produces pulses of either 100 fsec or 1 psec duration at a central wavelength of 229 nm. The large bandwidth of the pulses photoionizes all velocity classes of the Cd vapor, resulting in high loading efficiencies compared to previous ion trap loading techniques. Measured loading rates are compared with a simple theoretical model, and we conclude that this technique can potentially ionize every atom traversing the laser beam within the trapping volume. This may allow the operation of ion traps with lower levels of background pressures and less trap electrode surface contamination. The technique and laser system reported here should be applicable to loading most laser-cooled ion species.
This paper reports on photoionisation loading based on ultrafast pulses of singly-ionised strontium ions in a linear Paul trap. We take advantage of an autoionising resonance of Sr neutral atoms to form Sr+ by two-photon absorption of femtosecond pulses at a wavelength of 431nm. We compare this technique to electron-bombardment ionisation and observe several advantages of photoionisation. It actually allows the loading of a pure Sr+ ion cloud in a low radio-frequency voltage amplitude regime. In these conditions up to 4x10^4 laser-cooled Sr+ ions were trapped.
We report precision measurements of the excited state lifetime of the $5p$ $^2P_{1/2}$ and $5p$ $^2P_{3/2}$ levels of a single trapped Cd$^+$ ion. The ion is excited with picosecond laser pulses from a mode-locked laser and the distribution of arrival times of spontaneously emitted photons is recorded. The resulting lifetimes are 3.148 $pm$ 0.011 ns and 2.647 $pm$ 0.010 ns for $^2P_{1/2}$ and $^2P_{3/2}$ respectively. With a total uncertainty of under 0.4%, these are among the most precise measurements of any atomic state lifetimes to date.
Quantum computers hold the promise to solve certain computational task much more efficiently than classical computers. We review the recent experimental advancements towards a quantum computer with trapped ions. In particular, various implementations of qubits, quantum gates and some key experiments are discussed. Furthermore, we review some implementations of quantum algorithms such as a deterministic teleportation of quantum information and an error correction scheme.
We consider the quantum simulation of relativistic quantum mechanics, as described by the Dirac equation and classical potentials, in trapped-ion systems. We concentrate on three problems of growing complexity. First, we study the bidimensional relativistic scattering of single Dirac particles by a linear potential. Furthermore, we explore the case of a Dirac particle in a magnetic field and its topological properties. Finally, we analyze the problem of two Dirac particles that are coupled by a controllable and confining potential. The latter interaction may be useful to study important phenomena as the confinement and asymptotic freedom of quarks.
We propose the quantum simulation of the quantum Rabi model in all parameter regimes by means of detuned bichromatic sideband excitations of a single trapped ion. We show that current setups can reproduce, in particular, the ultrastrong and deep strong coupling regimes of such a paradigmatic light-matter interaction. Furthermore, associated with these extreme dipolar regimes, we study the controlled generation and detection of their entangled ground states by means of adiabatic methods. Ion traps have arguably performed the first quantum simulation of the Jaynes-Cummings model, a restricted regime of the quantum Rabi model where the rotating-wave approximation holds. We show that one can go beyond and experimentally investigate the quantum simulation of coupling regimes of the quantum Rabi model that are difficult to achieve with natural dipolar interactions.