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arXiv:0707.1528 · Physical Review A

Simplified motional heating rate measurements of trapped ions

R. J. Epstein, Signe Louise Seidelin, Dietrich G. Leibfried, Janus H. Wesenberg, J. J. Bollinger, Jason Amini, R. B. Blakestad, J. Britton, Jonathan Home, Wayne M. Itano, John D. Jost, Emanuel H. Knill, C. Langer, Roee Ozeri, Nobuyasu Shiga, David J. Wineland

Published Sep 19, 2007• 124 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We have measured motional heating rates of trapped atomic ions, a factor that can influence multi-ion quantum logic gate fidelities. Two simplified techniques were developed for this purpose: one relies on Raman sideband detection implemented with a single laser source, while the second is even simpler and is based on time-resolved fluorescence detection during Doppler recooling. We applied these methods to determine heating rates in a microfrabricated surface-electrode trap made of gold on fused quartz, which traps ions $40\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}$ above its surface. Heating rates obtained from the two techniques were found to be in reasonable agreement. In addition, the trap gives rise to a heating rate of $300\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}30\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ for a motional frequency of $5.25\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{MHz}$, substantially below the trend observed in other traps.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.76.033411

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We have measured motional heating rates of trapped atomic ions, a factor that can influence multi-ion quantum logic gate fidelities. Two simplified techniques were developed for this purpose: one relies on Raman sideband detection implemented with a single laser source, while the second is even simpler and is based on time-resolved fluorescence detection during Doppler recooling. We applied these methods to determine heating rates in a microfrabricated surface-electrode trap made of gold on fused quartz, which traps ions 40\ensuremathμm40\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}40\ensuremathμm above its surface. Heating rates obtained from the two techniques were found to be in reasonable agreement. In addition, the trap gives rise to a heating rate of 300\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi30s\ensuremath−1300\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}30\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}300\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi30s\ensuremath−1 for a motional frequency of 5.25MHz5.25\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{MHz}5.25MHz, substantially below the trend observed in other traps.
We report measurement of heating rates of 40 C a + ions confined in our home-made microscopic surface-electrode trap by a Doppler recooling method. The ions are trapped with approximately 800 μ m above the surface, and are subjected to heating due to various noises in the trap. There are 3–5 ions involved to measure the heating rates precisely and efficiently. We show the heating rates in variance with the number and the position of the ions as well as the radio-frequency power, which are helpful for understanding the trap imperfection.
Microfabricated Paul ion traps show tremendous promise for large-scale quantum information processing. However, motional heating of ions can have a detrimental effect on the fidelity of quantum logic operations in miniaturized, scalable designs. In many experiments, motional heating rates are ascribed solely to anomalous heating, which arises at least in part from electric field noise from the trap surface not attributable to any known mechanisms. Contributions to measured ion heating rates due to technical voltage noise present on the static (DC) and radio frequency (RF) electrodes—i.e., due to voltage sources, amplifiers, and other electrical components—can often be overlooked. We present a reliable method for determining the extent to which motional heating is dominated by technical voltage noise on the DC or RF electrodes. Also, we demonstrate that stray DC electric fields can shift the ion position such that technical noise on the RF electrode can significantly contribute to the motional heating rate. After minimizing the pseudopotential gradient experienced by the ion induced by stray DC electric fields, the motional heating due to RF technical noise can be significantly reduced.
We report heating rate measurements in a microfabricated gold-on-sapphire surface electrode ion trap with a trapping height of approximately 240 μm. Using the Doppler recooling method, we characterize the trap heating rates over an extended region of the trap. The noise spectral density of the trap falls in the range of noise spectra reported in ion traps at room temperature. We find that during the first months of operation, the heating rates increase by approximately one order of magnitude. The increase in heating rates is largest in the ion-loading region of the trap, providing a strong hint that surface contamination plays a major role for excessive heating rates. We discuss data found in the literature and the possible relation of anomalous heating to sources of noise and dissipation in other systems, namely impurity atoms adsorbed onto metal surfaces and amorphous dielectrics.
We present measurements of trapped-ion motional-state heating rates in niobium and gold surface-electrode ion traps over a range of trap-electrode temperatures from approximately 4 K to room temperature (295 K) in a single apparatus.Using the sideband-ratio technique after resolved-sideband cooling of single ions to the motional ground state, we find low-temperature heating rates more than two orders of magnitude below the room-temperature values and approximately equal to the lowest measured heating rates in similarly sized cryogenic traps. We find similar behavior in the two very different electrode materials, suggesting that the anomalous heating process is dominated by non-material-specific surface contaminants. Through precise control of the temperature of cryopumping surfaces, we also identify conditions under which elastic collisions with the background gas can lead to an apparent steady heating rate, despite rare collisions.
Laser cleaning of the electrodes in a planar micro-fabricated ion trap has been attempted using ns pulses from a tripled Nd:YAG laser at 355 nm.The effect of the laser pulses at several energy density levels has been tested by measuring the heating rate of a single 40 Ca + trapped ion as a function of its secular frequency ω z .A reduction of the electric-field noise spectral density by ∼50% has been observed and a change in the frequency dependence also noticed.This is the first reported experiment where the 'anomalous heating' phenomenon has been reduced by removing the source as opposed to reducing its thermal driving by cryogenic cooling.This technique may open up the way to better control of the electrode surface quality in ion microtraps.The recent success of quantum information experiments based on trapped ions [1] triggered research on micro-fabricated radio-frequency (Paul) traps, which are in principle able to fulfill the scalability requirement of a quantum computer [2,3].In such traps, a set of micro-fabricated conducting electrodes generates oscillating and static electric fields that trap laser-cooled ions in a harmonic potential well at a sub-millimeter distance d from the substrate [4,5].However, the presence of uncontrolled fluctuating electric fields affects the ions' external motion and induces an 'anomalous heating' that limits the achievable fidelity of multi-ion quantum gates that rely on the coherent control of this motion [6].Experimental observations concerning this phenomenon 4
Individual laser-cooled 24Mg+ ions are confined in a linear Paul trap with a novel geometry where gold electrodes are located in a single plane and the ions are trapped 40 microm above this plane. The relatively simple trap design and fabrication procedure are important for large-scale quantum information processing (QIP) using ions. Measured ion motional frequencies are compared to simulations. Measurements of ion recooling after cooling is temporarily suspended yield a heating rate of approximately 5 motional quanta per millisecond for a trap frequency of 2.83 MHz, sufficiently low to be useful for QIP.