Deterministic preparation of a dual-species two-ion crystal

authored by
Maximilian j. Zawierucha, Till Rehmert, Jonas Keller, Tanja e. Mehlstäubler, Piet O. Schmidt, Fabian Wolf
Abstract

The demand for efficient preparation methods for dual-species ion crystals is rapidly expanding across quantum technology and fundamental physics applications with trapped ions. We present a deterministic and efficient technique to produce such crystals, utilizing the segmented structure of a linear Paul trap. By precisely tailoring the trapping potentials, we can split, move, and discard parts of an ion chain. This process is automated in a sequence that converts a larger ion sample into the desired configuration. A critical component of our approach is the accurate identification of crystal constituents. This is achieved by matching the measured positions of fluorescing ions against theoretical expectations for larger crystals, thus facilitating the detection of nonfluorescing ions and enabling accurate ion counting. We demonstrate that our method reliably produces two-ion crystals within minutes. These results represent a significant advance in the production of two-species ion crystals with applications ranging from quantum logic spectroscopy and optical clocks to quantum computing and simulations with trapped ions.

Organisation(s)
QuantumFrontiers
CRC 1227 Designed Quantum States of Matter (DQ-mat)
Institute of Quantum Optics
External Organisation(s)
National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB)
Type
Article
Journal
Physical Review A
Volume
110
ISSN
2469-9926
Publication date
08.07.2024
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Electronic version(s)
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.110.013107 (Access: Open)