827 research outputs found
Zero-Point cooling and low heating of trapped 111Cd+ ions
We report on ground state laser cooling of single 111Cd+ ions confined in
radio-frequency (Paul) traps. Heating rates of trapped ion motion are measured
for two different trapping geometries and electrode materials, where no effort
was made to shield the electrodes from the atomic Cd source. The low measured
heating rates suggest that trapped 111Cd+ ions may be well-suited for
experiments involving quantum control of atomic motion, including applications
in quantum information science.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to PR
Implementation of Grover's Quantum Search Algorithm in a Scalable System
We report the implementation of Grover's quantum search algorithm in the
scalable system of trapped atomic ion quantum bits. Any one of four possible
states of a two-qubit memory is marked, and following a single query of the
search space, the marked element is successfully recovered with an average
probability of 60(2)%. This exceeds the performance of any possible classical
search algorithm, which can only succeed with a maximum average probability of
50%.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, updated error discussio
Magneto-optical Trapping of Cadmium
We report the laser-cooling and confinement of Cd atoms in a magneto-optical
trap, and characterize the loading process from the background Cd vapor. The
trapping laser drives the 1S0-1P1 transition at 229 nm in this two-electron
atom and also photoionizes atoms directly from the 1P1 state. This
photoionization overwhelms the other loss mechanisms and allows a direct
measurement of the photoionization cross section, which we measure to be
2(1)x10^(-16)cm^(2) from the 1P1 state. When combined with nearby laser-cooled
and trapped Cd^(+) ions, this apparatus could facilitate studies in ultracold
interactions between atoms and ions.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure
Detecting unambiguously non-Abelian geometric phases with trapped ions
We propose for the first time an experimentally feasible scheme to disclose
the noncommutative effects induced by a light-induced non-Abelian gauge
structure with trapped ions. Under an appropriate configuration, a true
non-Abelian gauge potential naturally arises in connection with the geometric
phase associated with two degenerated dark states in a four-state atomic system
interacting with three pulsed laser fields. We show that the population in
atomic state at the end of a composed path formed by two closed loops and
in the parameter space can be significantly different from the composed
counter-ordered path. This population difference is directly induced by the
noncommutative feature of non-Abelian geometric phases and can be detected
unambiguously with current technology.Comment: 6 page
Entanglement of Trapped-Ion Clock States
A M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen entangling gate is realized for pairs of trapped
Cd ions using magnetic-field insensitive "clock" states and an
implementation offering reduced sensitivity to optical phase drifts. The gate
is used to generate the complete set of four entangled states, which are
reconstructed and evaluated with quantum-state tomography. An average
target-state fidelity of 0.79 is achieved, limited by available laser power and
technical noise. The tomographic reconstruction of entangled states
demonstrates universal quantum control of two ion-qubits, which through
multiplexing can provide a route to scalable architectures for trapped-ion
quantum computing.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Enhancing accounting and finance students’ awareness of transferable skills in an integrated blended learning environment
This research investigates students’ transferable skills in an integrating blended learning environment, specifically addressing writing skills. Drawing on Biggs’ application of constructivism theory, the study analyses students’ characteristics, perception of the designed teaching methods, and confidence in their writing skills. The study context was a suite of accounting and finance programmes in the United Kingdom. 164 student participants answered questionnaires, from among whom focus group participants were organised. A mixed research method was adopted to clarify the drivers of the active learning process. The findings reveal that students’ characteristics influence perceptions, and that a well-designed blended learning method can alter their perceptions and improve students’ writing skills. The study contributes to the literature on blended learning by providing evidence of its positive impact on the students’ learning process and performance. The findings encourage accounting educators to develop strategies to improve students’ performance in transferable skills through an appropriate learning design
Phase Control of Trapped Ion Quantum Gates
There are several known schemes for entangling trapped ion quantum bits for
large-scale quantum computation. Most are based on an interaction between the
ions and external optical fields, coupling internal qubit states of
trapped-ions to their Coulomb-coupled motion. In this paper, we examine the
sensitivity of these motional gate schemes to phase fluctuations introduced
through noisy external control fields, and suggest techniques to suppress the
resulting phase decoherence.Comment: 21 pages 12 figure
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