59 research outputs found
Surface-induced decoherence and heating of charged particles
Levitating charged particles in ultra-high vacuum provides a preeminent
platform for quantum information processing, for quantum-enhanced force and
torque sensing, for probing physics beyond the standard model, and for
high-mass tests of the quantum superposition principle. Existing setups range
from single atomic ions, to ion chains and crystals, to charged molecules and
nanoparticles. Future technological applications of such quantum systems will
be crucially affected by fluctuating electric fields emanating from nearby
electrodes, which interact with the levitated particles' monopole and higher
charge moments. In this article, we provide a theoretical toolbox for
describing how the rotational and translational quantum dynamics of charged
nano- to microscale objects is affected by near metallic and dielectric
surfaces, as characterized by their macroscopic dielectric response. The
resulting quantum master equations describe the coherent surface-particle
interaction, due to image charges and Casimir-Polder potentials, as well as
surface-induced decoherence and heating, with the experimentally observed
frequency and distance scaling. We explicitly evaluate the master equations for
typical charge distributions and types of motion, thereby providing the tools
required for describing and mitigating surface-induced decoherence in a variety
of experiments with charged objects.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures, 4 table
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