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arXiv:1203.0792 · Physical Review A

Micromotion in trapped atom-ion systems

Lê Huy Nguyên, Amir Kalev, M. D. Barrett, Berthold‐Georg Englert

Published May 31, 2012• 40 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We examine the validity of the harmonic approximation, where the radio-frequency ion trap is treated as a harmonic trap, in the problem regarding the controlled collision of a trapped atom and a single trapped ion. This is equivalent to studying the effect of the micromotion since this motion must be neglected for the trapped ion to be considered as a harmonic oscillator. By applying the transformation of Cook and Shankland we find that the micromotion can be represented by two periodically oscillating operators. In order to investigate the effect of the micromotion on the dynamics of a trapped atom-ion system, we calculate (i) the coupling strengths of the micromotion operators by numerical integration and (ii) the quasienergies of the system by applying the Floquet formalism, a useful framework for studying periodic systems. It turns out that the micromotion is not negligible when the distance between the atom and the ion traps is shorter than a characteristic distance. Within this range the energy diagram of the system changes remarkably when the micromotion is taken into account, which leads to undesirable consequences for applications that are based on an adiabatic process of the trapped atom-ion system. We suggest a simple scheme for bypassing the micromotion effect in order to successfully implement a quantum controlled phase gate proposed previously and create an atom-ion macromolecule. The methods presented here are not restricted to trapped atom-ion systems and can be readily applied to studying the micromotion effect in any system involving a single trapped ion.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.052718

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We examine the validity of the harmonic approximation, where the radio-frequency ion trap is treated as a harmonic trap, in the problem regarding the controlled collision of a trapped atom and a single trapped ion. This is equivalent to studying the effect of the micromotion since this motion must be neglected for the trapped ion to be considered as a harmonic oscillator. By applying the transformation of Cook and Shankland we find that the micromotion can be represented by two periodically oscillating operators. In order to investigate the effect of the micromotion on the dynamics of a trapped atom-ion system, we calculate (i) the coupling strengths of the micromotion operators by numerical integration and (ii) the quasienergies of the system by applying the Floquet formalism, a useful framework for studying periodic systems. It turns out that the micromotion is not negligible when the distance between the atom and the ion traps is shorter than a characteristic distance. Within this range the energy diagram of the system changes remarkably when the micromotion is taken into account, which leads to undesirable consequences for applications that are based on an adiabatic process of the trapped atom-ion system. We suggest a simple scheme for bypassing the micromotion effect in order to successfully implement a quantum controlled phase gate proposed previously and create an atom-ion macromolecule. The methods presented here are not restricted to trapped atom-ion systems and can be readily applied to studying the micromotion effect in any system involving a single trapped ion.
Ultracold atom-ion systems have been a topic of interest for atomic physicists studying chemical reactions and since recently, the cold ion community (ion trap quantum computation and simulation). They have been looking at the possibility of using an ultracold atom gas to sympathetically cool ions since intrinsic motional modulation i.e micromotion is an inherent cause of decoherence in coherent applications of cold ions. Interest is also piqued by the possibility of using this hybrid system for studying impurity physics and to better understand ion-neutral reactions aimed at creation of molecular ions. In this thesis, we aim to study the effect of ion micromotion in atom-ion collision. As a prelude, we treat the 1D collision of a particle in a harmonic trap (ion) and a free particle (atom) using different numerical schemes. This system is of interest in its own right due to the mixed 0D-1D dimensionality. Atom-ion potential is simplified to a zero range potential all through out the work. Next we deal with a similar problem but with the trapped particle in a time dependent harmonic trap identical to an ion Paul trap. Finally we extend the study of micromotion to a model system in 3D with an ion in a 3D spherical Paul trap and a heavy atom at the trap centre. We discuss the effect micromotion has on potential applications of such a system, like a quantum phase gate.
We have developed an efficient computational scheme for integration of the classical Hamilton equations describing the ion dynamics confined in the radio-frequency field of the Paul trap. It has permitted a quantitative treatment of cold atom-ion resonant collisions in hybrid atom-ion traps with taking into account unremovable ion micromotion caused by the radio-frequency fields (V.S. Melezhik et. al., Phys. Rev. A100, 063406 (2019)). The important element of the hybrid atom-ion systems is the electromagnetic Paul trap confining the charged ion. The oscillating motion of the confined ion is defined by two frequencies of the Paul trap. It is the frequency of the order of 100 kHz due to the constant electric field and the radio-frequency of about 1-2 MHz defined by the alternating electromagnetic field of the ion trap. The necessity to accurately treat the ion motion in the combined field with two time scales defined by these two very different frequencies has demanded to develop the stable computational scheme for integration of the classical Hamilton equations for the ion motion. Moreover, the scheme must be stable on rather long time-interval of the ion collision with the cold atom ∼ 10 × 2/ defined by the atomic trap frequency ∼ 10 kHz and in the moment of the atom-ion collision when the Hamilton equations are strongly coupled. The developed numerical method takes into account all these features of the problem and makes it possible to integrate the system of coupled quantum-semiclassical equations with the necessary accuracy and quantitatively describes the processes of atomic-ion collisions in hybrid traps, including resonance effects.
We investigate confinement-induced resonances in atom-ion quantum mixtures confined in hybrid traps for small atom-ion mass ratios. Specifically, we consider an ion confined in a time-dependent radio-frequency Paul trap with linear geometry, while the atom is constrained to move into a quasi-one-dimensional optical waveguide within the ion trap. We evaluate the impact of the ion intrinsic micromotion on the resonance position. Thus, we solve the atom-ion dynamics semiclassically, namely, the atom dynamics is governed by the three-dimensional time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation, whereas the ion motion is described by the classical Hamilton equations. We find that the energy of the ion provided by the oscillating radio-frequency fields can affect the resonance position substantially. Notwithstanding, the peculiar phenomenology of those resonances regarding perfect transmission and reflection is still observable. These findings indicate that the intrinsic micromotion of the ion is not detrimental for the occurrence of the resonance and that its position can be controlled by the radio-frequency fields. This provides an additional means for tuning atom-ion interactions in low spatial dimensions. The study represents an important advancement in the scattering physics of compound atomic quantum systems in time-dependent traps.
Radio-frequency-induced micromotion in trapped ion systems is typically minimized or circumvented to avoid off-resonant couplings for adiabatic processes such as multi-ion gate operations. Nonadiabatic entangling gates (so-called ``fast gates'') do not require resolution of specific motional sidebands and are, therefore, not limited to time scales longer than the trapping period. We find that fast gates designed for micromotion-free environments have a significantly reduced fidelity in the presence of micromotion. We show that when fast gates are designed to account for the radio-frequency-induced micromotion, they can, in fact, outperform fast gates in the absence of micromotion. The state-dependent force due to the laser induces energy shifts that are amplified by the state-independent forces producing the micromotion. This enhancement is present for all trapping parameters and is robust to realistic sources of experimental error. This result paves the way for fast two-qubit entangling gates on scalable two-dimensional architectures, where micromotion is necessarily present on at least one interion axis.
Micromotion in radio-frequency ion traps is generally considered detrimental for quantum logic gates, and is typically minimized in state-of-the-art experiments. However, as a deterministic effect, it can be incorporated into quantum control frameworks aimed at designing high-fidelity quantum logic controls. In this work, we demonstrate that micromotion can be beneficial to the design of fast gates utilizing the radial modes of a two-ion crystal, particularly in the sub-trap-period regime where high-fidelity control sequences are identified with operation times ranging from hundreds of nanoseconds to microseconds. Through analysis of select fast gate solutions, we uncover the physical origin of micromotion enhancement and further study the induced gate error under experimental noises and control imperfections. This analysis establishes the feasibility of realising high-fidelity entangling gates in hundreds of nanoseconds using the micromotion-sensitive radial modes of trapped-ion crystals.
We analyze theoretically the dynamics of an atomic double-well system with a single ion trapped in its center. We find that the atomic tunneling rate between the wells depends both on the spin of the ion via the short-range spin-dependent atom-ion scattering length and on its motional state with tunneling rates reaching hundreds of hertz. A protocol is presented that could transport an atom from one well to the other, depending on the motional (Fock) state of the ion within a few milliseconds. This phonon-atom coupling is of interest for creating atom-ion entangled states and may form a building block in constructing a hybrid atom-ion quantum simulator. We also analyze the effect of imperfect ground-state cooling of the ion and the role of micromotion when the ion is trapped in a Paul trap. Due to the strong nonlinearities in the atom-ion interaction, the micromotion can cause couplings to high-energy atom-ion scattering states, preventing accurate state preparation and complicating the double-well dynamics. We conclude that the effects of micromotion can be reduced by choosing ion-atom combinations with a large mass ratio and by choosing large interwell distances. The proposed double-well system may be realized in an experiment by combining either optical traps or magnetic microtraps for atoms with ion trapping technology.