Loading an Equidistant Ion Chain in a Ring Shaped Surface Trap and Anomalous Heating Studies with a High Optical Access Trap

Microfabricated segmented surface ion traps are one viable avenue to scalable quantum information processing. At Sandia National Laboratories we design, fabricate, and characterize such traps. Our unique fabrication capabilities allow us to design traps that facilitate tasks beyond quantum information processing. The design and performance of a trap with a target capability of storing hundreds of equally spaced ions on a ring is described. Such a device could aid experimental studies of phenom- ena as diverse as Hawking radiation, quantum phase transitions, and the Aharonov - Bohm effect. The fabricated device is demonstrated to hold a 3c 400 ion circular crystal, with 9 μm average spacing between ions. The task is accomplished by first characterizing undesired electric fields in the trapping volume and then designing and applying an electric field that substantially reduces the undesired fields. In addition, experimental efforts are described to reduce the motional heating rates in a surface trap by low energy in situ argon plasma treatment that reduces the amount of surface contaminants. The experiment explores the premise that carbonaceous compounds present on the surface contribute to the anomalous heating of secular motion modes in surface traps. This is a research area of fundamental interest to the ion trapping community, as heating adversely affects coherence and thus gate fidelity. The de- vice used provides high optical laser access, substantially reducing scatter from the surface, and thus charging that may lead to excess micromotion. Heating rates for different axial mode frequencies are compared before and after plasma treatment. The presence of a carbon source near the plasma prevents making a conclusion on the observed absence of change in heating rates

Techno-Economic Feasibility of Web Real-Time Communications

WebRTC is an ongoing effort to build an open framework for real-time audio and video communication capabilities that turn Web browsers, and other clients supporting it, into a platform for person-to-person communication. Previously, real-time communication (RTC) has been achievable in the Web browser only by installing third party software. WebRTC brings native support for RTC to the Web browsers and exposes it freely to web developers via standardized JavaScript API. This brings RTC as a feature to the Web, which can foster further innovation. This thesis studies the techno-economic feasibility of WebRTC with the help of a framework for feasibility analysis of Internet protocols, developed by Levaä and Suomi (2013). To provide input for the framework, we conduct an interview study, as well as research of available Web resources. Further, we explore what market opportunities may arise, provided that WebRTC is successfully adopted. To do that, we use Value Network Configurations as a tool for studying and visualizing the possible relationships between market players and the roles they assume in the ecosystem. We find that WebRTC is a feasible technology in its basic, but highly relevant use case of one-to-one browser-to-browser communication. While we discover a number of unresolved challenges, we do not see any insurmountable obstacles that would prevent WebRTC adoption. WebRTC opens up opportunities for companies that would use it directly to deliver an RTC service, but also creates space for WebRTC PaaS providers in the market. Additionally, WebRTC interconnecting with legacy systems, such as PSTN or PLMN, opens up opportunity for telecom operators to explore creating new ways of communication for their customers