Suppression of Ion Transport due to Long-Lived Sub-Wavelength Localization by an Optical Lattice


Abstract in English

We report the localization of an ion by a one-dimensional optical lattice in the presence of an applied external force. The ion is confined radially by a radiofrequency trap and axially by a combined electrostatic and optical-lattice potential. The ion is cooled using a resolved Raman sideband technique to a mean vibrational number <n> = 0.6 pm 0.1 along the optical lattice. We implement a detection method to monitor the position of the ion subject to a periodic electrical driving force with a resolution down to lambda/40, and demonstrate suppression of the driven ion motion and localization to a single lattice site on time scales of up to 10 milliseconds. This opens new possibilities for studying many-body systems with long-range interactions in periodic potentials.

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