35 research outputs found
Sympathetic and swap cooling of trapped ions by cold atoms in a MOT
A mixed system of cooled and trapped, ions and atoms, paves the way for ion
assisted cold chemistry and novel many body studies. Due to the different
individual trapping mechanisms, trapped atoms are significantly colder than
trapped ions, therefore in the combined system, the strong binary ionatom
interaction results in heat flow from ions to atoms. Conversely, trapped ions
can also get collisionally heated by the cold atoms, making the resulting
equilibrium between ions and atoms intriguing. Here we experimentally
demonstrate, Rubidium ions (Rb) cool in contact with magneto-optically
trapped (MOT) Rb atoms, contrary to the general expectation of ion heating for
equal ion and atom masses. The cooling mechanism is explained theoretically and
substantiated with numerical simulations. The importance of resonant charge
exchange (RCx) collisions, which allows swap cooling of ions with atoms,
wherein a single glancing collision event brings a fast ion to rest, is
discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Dynamics of a cold trapped ion in a Bose-Einstein condensate
We investigate the interaction of a laser-cooled trapped ion (Ba or
Rb) with an optically confined Rb Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC).
The system features interesting dynamics of the ion and the atom cloud as
determined by their collisions and their motion in their respective traps.
Elastic as well as inelastic processes are observed and their respective cross
sections are determined. We demonstrate that a single ion can be used to probe
the density profile of an ultracold atom cloud.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Decoherence of a single-ion qubit immersed in a spin-polarized atomic bath
We report on the immersion of a spin-qubit encoded in a single trapped ion
into a spin-polarized neutral atom environment, which possesses both continuous
(motional) and discrete (spin) degrees of freedom. The environment offers the
possibility of a precise microscopic description, which allows us to understand
dynamics and decoherence from first principles. We observe the spin dynamics of
the qubit and measure the decoherence times (T1 and T2), which are determined
by the spin-exchange interaction as well as by an unexpectedly strong
spin-nonconserving coupling mechanism
Combined ion and atom trap for low temperature ion-atom physics
We report an experimental apparatus and technique which simultaneously traps
ions and cold atoms with spatial overlap. Such an apparatus is motivated by the
study of ion-atom processes at temperatures ranging from hot to ultra-cold.
This area is a largely unexplored domain of physics with cold trapped atoms. In
this article we discuss the general design considerations for combining these
two traps and present our experimental setup. The ion trap and atom traps are
characterized independently of each other. The simultaneous operation of both
is then described and experimental signatures of the effect of the ions and
cold-atoms on each other are presented. In conclusion the use of such an
instrument for several problems in physics and chemistry is briefly discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures. Figures Fixe
Optical Trapping of an Ion
For several decades, ions have been trapped by radio frequency (RF) and
neutral particles by optical fields. We implement the experimental
proof-of-principle for trapping an ion in an optical dipole trap. While
loading, initialization and final detection are performed in a RF trap, in
between, this RF trap is completely disabled and substituted by the optical
trap. The measured lifetime of milliseconds allows for hundreds of oscillations
within the optical potential. It is mainly limited by heating due to photon
scattering. In future experiments the lifetime may be increased by further
detuning the laser and cooling the ion. We demonstrate the prerequisite to
merge both trapping techniques in hybrid setups to the point of trapping ions
and atoms in the same optical potential.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
A trapped single ion inside a Bose-Einstein condensate
Improved control of the motional and internal quantum states of ultracold
neutral atoms and ions has opened intriguing possibilities for quantum
simulation and quantum computation. Many-body effects have been explored with
hundreds of thousands of quantum-degenerate neutral atoms and coherent
light-matter interfaces have been built. Systems of single or a few trapped
ions have been used to demonstrate universal quantum computing algorithms and
to detect variations of fundamental constants in precision atomic clocks. Until
now, atomic quantum gases and single trapped ions have been treated separately
in experiments. Here we investigate whether they can be advantageously combined
into one hybrid system, by exploring the immersion of a single trapped ion into
a Bose-Einstein condensate of neutral atoms. We demonstrate independent control
over the two components within the hybrid system, study the fundamental
interaction processes and observe sympathetic cooling of the single ion by the
condensate. Our experiment calls for further research into the possibility of
using this technique for the continuous cooling of quantum computers. We also
anticipate that it will lead to explorations of entanglement in hybrid quantum
systems and to fundamental studies of the decoherence of a single, locally
controlled impurity particle coupled to a quantum environment
Fabrication and operation of a two-dimensional ion-trap lattice on a high-voltage microchip
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, will 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, because of 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 two-dimensional ion-trap lattice on a microchip. Our microfabricated architecture allows for reliable trapping of two-dimensional ion lattices, long ion lifetimes, rudimentary shuttling between lattice sites and the ability to deterministically introduce defects into the ion lattice
Trapping ions with lasers
This work theoretically addresses the trapping an ionized atom with a single
valence electron by means of lasers, analyzing qualitatively and quantitatively
the consequences of the net charge of the particle. In our model, the coupling
between the ion and the electromagnetic field includes the charge monopole and
the internal dipole, within a multipolar expansion of the interaction
Hamiltonian. Specifically, we perform a Power-Zienau-Woolley transformation,
taking into account the motion of the center of mass. The net charge produces a
correction in the atomic dipole which is of order with the
electron mass and the total mass of the ion. With respect to neutral atoms,
there is also an extra coupling to the laser field which can be approximated by
that of the monopole located at the position of the center of mass. These
additional effects, however, are shown to be very small compared to the
dominant dipolar trapping term.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, replaced with published version (minor changes
Linear Paul trap design for an optical clock with Coulomb crystals
We report on the design of a segmented linear Paul trap for optical clock
applications using trapped ion Coulomb crystals. For an optical clock with an
improved short-term stability and a fractional frequency uncertainty of 10^-18,
we propose 115In+ ions sympathetically cooled by 172Yb+. We discuss the
systematic frequency shifts of such a frequency standard. In particular, we
elaborate on high precision calculations of the electric radiofrequency field
of the ion trap using the finite element method. These calculations are used to
find a scalable design with minimized excess micromotion of the ions at a level
at which the corresponding second- order Doppler shift contributes less than
10^-18 to the relative uncertainty of the frequency standard
Inserting single Cs atoms into an ultracold Rb gas
We report on the controlled insertion of individual Cs atoms into an
ultracold Rb gas at about 400 nK. This requires to combine the techniques
necessary for cooling, trapping and manipulating single laser cooled atoms
around the Doppler temperature with an experiment to produce ultracold
degenerate quantum gases. In our approach, both systems are prepared in
separated traps and then combined. Our results pave the way for coherent
interaction between a quantum gas and a single or few neutral atoms of another
species