An ion trap apparatus with high optical access in multiple directions

Abstract

Optical controls provided by lasers are the most important and essential techniques in trapped ion and cold atom systems. It is crucial to increase the optical accessibility of the setup to enhance these optical capabilities. Here, we present the design and construction of a new segmented-blade ion trap integrated with a compact glass vacuum cell, in place of the conventional bulky metal vacuum chamber. The distance between the ion and four outside surfaces of the glass cell is 15 mm, which enables us to install four high-numerical-aperture (NA) lenses (with two NA ⩽ 0.32 lenses and two NA ⩽ 0.66 lenses) in two orthogonal transverse directions, while leaving enough space for laser beams in the oblique and longitudinal directions. The high optical accessibility in multiple directions allows the application of small laser spots for addressable Raman operations, programmable optical tweezer arrays, and efficient fluorescence collection simultaneously. We have successfully loaded and cooled a string of 174Yb+ and 171Yb+ ions in the trap, which verifies the trapping stability. This compact high-optical-access trap setup not only can be used as an extendable module for quantum information processing but also facilitates experimental studies on quantum chemistry in a cold hybrid ion-atom system.

Microscopic theory of thermalization in 1D with nonlinear bath coupling

“…Typical axial trap frequencies vary from several kHz [29] to the MHz regime [30], with motional heating rates as low as a few quanta/s at cryogenic temperatures [31]. In order to implement the effective bath coupling, the trap potential near the center could be modified using a small dc electrode or a tightly-focused laser beam, which would produce a dimple potential [27,32].…”

A single-atom level mechano-optical transducer for ultrasensitive force sensing

“…Further improvements are possible for a better sensitivity. First, detection efficiency can be enhanced by realistic modifications and update of current experimental setup, for instance, larger solid angle for fluorescence light collection enabled by a binary phase Fresnel lens with N A = 0.64 15 or by integration with a glass vacuum cell 28 , using a superconducting single photon de- 6) and β Y = 0.0308 (28), and q y = 0.1827 and q z = 0.1840 obtained from the trapping frequency dependence on the applied RF voltage. V 2 and V 7 were varied simultaneously in small voltage step ∆V = 50 mV, and their relation was V 7 = V 2 + 0.25V .…”