No Arabic abstract
We present a simple Paul trap that stably accommodates up to a couple of dozens of ensuremath{^{171}mathrm{Yb}^+~} ions in a stationary two-dimensional lattice. The trap is constructed on a single plate of gold-plated laser-machined alumina and can produce a pancake-like pseudo-potential that makes ions form a self-assembly two-dimensional crystal which locates on the plane composed of axial and one of the transverse axes with around 5 $mu$m spacing. We use Raman laser beams to coherently manipulate these ion-qubits where the net propagation direction is perpendicular to the plane of the crystal and micromotion. We perform the coherent operations and study the spectrum of vibrational modes through globally addressed Raman laser-beams on a dozen of ions in the two-dimensional crystal. We measure the amplitude of micro-motion by comparing the strengths of carrier and micro-motion sideband transitions with three ions, where the micro-motion amplitude is similar to that of a single ion. The spacings of ions are small enough for large coupling strengths, which is a favorable condition for two-dimensional quantum simulation.
We demonstrate trapping of electrons in a millimeter-sized quadrupole Paul trap driven at 1.6~GHz in a room-temperature ultra-high vacuum setup. Cold electrons are introduced into the trap by ionization of atomic calcium via Rydberg states and stay confined by microwave and static electric fields for several tens of milliseconds. A fraction of these electrons remain trapped longer and show no measurable loss for measurement times up to a second. Electronic excitation of the motion reveals secular frequencies which can be tuned over a range of several tens to hundreds of MHz. Operating a similar electron Paul trap in a cryogenic environment may provide a platform for all-electric quantum computing with trapped electron spin qubits.
We experimentally demonstrate fast separation of a two-ion crystal in a microstructured segmented Paul trap. By the use of spectroscopic calibration routines for the electrostatic trap potentials, we achieve the required precise control of the ion trajectories near the textit{critical point}, where the harmonic confinement by the external potential vanishes. The separation procedure can be controlled by three parameters: A static potential tilt, a voltage offset at the critical point, and the total duration of the process. We show how to optimize the control parameters by measurements of ion distances, trap frequencies and the final motional excitation. At a separation duration of $80 mu$s, we achieve a minimum mean excitation of $bar{n} = 4.16(0.16)$ vibrational quanta per ion, which is consistent with the adiabatic limit given by our particular trap. We show that for fast separation times, oscillatory motion is excited, while a predominantly thermal state is obtained for long times. The presented technique does not rely on specific trap geometry parameters and can therefore be adopted for different segmented traps.
Quantum mechanics dominates various effects in modern research from miniaturizing electronics, up to potentially ruling solid-state physics, quantum chemistry and biology. To study these effects experimental quantum systems may provide the only effective access. Seminal progress has been achieved in a variety of physical platforms, highlighted by recent applications. Atomic ions are known for their unique controllability and are identical by nature, as evidenced, e.g., by performing among the most precise atomic clocks and providing the basis for one-dimensional simulators. However, controllable, scalable systems of more than one dimension are required to address problems of interest and to reach beyond classical numerics with its powerful approximative methods. Here we show, tunable, coherent couplings and interference in a two-dimensional ion microtrap array, completing the toolbox for a reconfigurable quantum simulator. Previously, couplings and entangling interactions between sites in one-dimensional traps have been realized, while coupling remained elusive in microtrap approaches. Our architecture is based on well isolatable ions as identical quantum entities hovering above scalable CMOS chips. In contrast to other multi-dimensional approaches, it allows individual control in arbitrary, even non-periodic, lattice structures. Embedded control structures can exploit the long-range Coulomb interaction to configure synthetic, fully connected many-body systems to address multi-dimensional problems.
Microfabricated ion traps are a major advancement towards scalable quantum computing with trapped ions. The development of more versatile ion-trap designs, in which tailored arrays of ions are positioned in two dimensions above a microfabricated surface, would lead to applications in fields as varied as quantum simulation, metrology and atom-ion interactions. Current surface ion traps often have low trap depths and high heating rates, due to the size of the voltages that can be applied to them, limiting the fidelity of quantum gates. Here we report on a fabrication process that allows for the application of very high voltages to microfabricated devices in general and use this advance to fabricate a 2D ion trap lattice on a microchip. Our microfabricated architecture allows for reliable trapping of 2D ion lattices, long ion lifetimes, rudimentary shuttling between lattice sites and the ability to deterministically introduce defects into the ion lattice.
We present models for a heteronuclear diatomic molecular ion in a linear Paul trap in a rigid-rotor approximation, one purely classical, the other where the center-of-mass motion is treated classically while rotational motion is quantized. We study the rotational dynamics and their influence on the motion of the center-of-mass, in the presence of the coupling between the permanent dipole moment of the ion and the trapping electric field. We show that the presence of the permanent dipole moment affects the trajectory of the ion, and that it departs from the Mathieu equation solution found for atomic ions. For the case of quantum rotations, we also evidence the effect of the above-mentioned coupling on the rotational states of the ion.