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arXiv:1401.1699

Ion-atom hybrid systems

Stefan Willitsch

Published Jan 8, 2014• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The study of interactions between simultaneously trapped cold ions and atoms has emerged as a new research direction in recent years. The development of ion-atom hybrid experiments has paved the way for investigating elastic, inelastic and reactive collisions between these species at very low temperatures, for exploring new cooling mechanisms of ions by atoms and for implementing new hybrid quantum systems. The present lecture reviews experimental methods, recent results and upcoming developments in this emerging field.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1401.1699

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The study of interactions between simultaneously trapped cold ions and atoms has emerged as a new research direction in recent years. The development of ion-atom hybrid experiments has paved the way for investigating elastic, inelastic and reactive collisions between these species at very low temperatures, for exploring new cooling mechanisms of ions by atoms and for implementing new hybrid quantum systems. The present lecture reviews experimental methods, recent results and upcoming developments in this emerging field.
Summary. — The study of interactions between simultaneously trapped cold ions and atoms has emerged as a new research direction in recent years. The development of ion-atom hybrid experiments has paved the way for investigating elastic, inelastic and reactive collisions between these species at very low temperatures, for exploring new cooling mechanisms of ions by atoms and for implementing new hybrid quantum systems. The present lecture reviews experimental methods, recent results and upcoming developments in this emerging field. 1.
The study of chemical reactions between ions and neutral species at very low energies reveals precise informations about the dynamics of collisions and fine details of intermolecular interactions. Here, we report progress towards the development of next- generation experiments for the investigation of cold ion-neutral reactions. First, we present a new ''dynamic" hybrid ion-atom trap which enables the study of collisions with a superior energy resolution accessing a regime in which quantum scattering resonances may become observable. Second, we discuss and numerically characterize the concept and properties of a hybrid trap for cold neutral molecules and molecular ions which paves the way for the study of ion-molecule reactions in the millikelvin regime.
The atom-ion hybrid system provides a new platform to study ultracold collisions and chemical reactions. To investigate chemical reactions in ultracold regimes, we combine neutral atoms in an optical trap and ions in a Paul trap to construct an atom-ion hybrid system. Here we introduce our recent work on ultracold elastic/inelastic collisions at a single atom level with a state-by-state manner. From quantitative discussions on the collision’s cross-sections, we clarified the microscopic collisional mechanisms.
In the last five years, a novel field of physics and chemistry has developed in which cold trapped ions and ultracold atomic gases are brought into contact with each other. Combining ion traps with traps for neutral atoms yields a variety of new possibilities for research and experiments. These range from studies of cold atom–ion collisions and atom–ion chemistry to applications in quantum information science and condensed matter related research. In this article we give a brief introduction into this new field and describe some of the perspectives for its future development.
Hybrid quantum systems represent one of the most promising routes in the progress of experimental quantum physics and in the development of quantum technologies. In a hybrid quantum system two (or more) different quantum systems interact in the same experimental setup. Therefore, these composite systems benefit from both the properties of each single system and from the presence of an interaction term, leading to the emergence of new variables that can be experimentally manipulated. \nA promising hybrid quantum system is the one realized by the com- bination of an ultracold atomic gas and trapped ions. Ultracold atoms and trapped ions are two of the most studied physical systems for the implementation of several quantum technologies, like e.g. quantum simulation, quantum computa- tion, and quantum metrology. When trapped together, atoms and ions interact via an interaction potential that scales asymptotically with R^(−4), where R is the inter- particle distance, due to the electrostatic (attractive) force between the ion’s electric monopole and the atom’s induced dipole. Interestingly, this potential has a typical range on the order of hundreds of nm, i.e. approx. two orders of magnitude longer than the range of atom-atom interactions. Several studies have proposed to use this interaction to realize new quantum simulations, study few-body physics, and control atom-ion chemical reactions. \nElastic collisions between ions and atoms can be exploited to sympathetically cool the ions and try to reach the so-far elusive s-wave scattering regime, in which atom- ion collisions can lead to a quantum coherent evolution of the composite system. However, the ultracold atom-ion mixtures realized so far were not brought to the s-wave scattering regime because of the so-called “micromotion”, a driven motion affecting the dynamics of the ions trapped in Paul traps. Atom-ion collisions in the presence of micromotion cause a coupling of energy from the oscillating field of the Paul trap to the colliding particles, which can be heated up in the collision. In order to realize an atom-ion experiment in which the system could reach the s-wave scattering regime, the choice of the atomic species and the ion trapping strategy are crucial. \nWe decided to build a new experimental apparatus for the realization of an ultracold atom-ion quantum hybrid system made of a quantum gas of fermionic Lithium and trapped Barium ions. The choice for the elements ensures that atoms and ions in their electronic ground state will not undergo charge- exchange collisions, i.e. inelastic processes for which an electron is “exchanged” be- tween the two colliding particles. Additionally, the large mass ratio ensures an efficient cooling of the ion in the ultracold gas. \nFor what regards the ion trapping strategy, in order to remove the limitations set by micromotion, we conceived a new trap. This is formed by the superposition of an electric quadrupole static potential and an optical lattice along the untrapping direction of the electric quadrupole. The ions are moved into this electro-optical trap (EOT) from a standard Paul trap, in which the ions are first trapped after their production through photoionization. \nIn this thesis, I will describe how this new experimental apparatus for the real- ization of an ultracold atom-ion quantum hybrid system was conceived, designed and assembled. I will first describe the motivations for investigating atom-ion interactions in the ultracold regime. Then, I will describe the experimental techniques to trap and cool Barium ions and Lithium atoms, and how we plan to make them interact. The largest part of the thesis will be dedicated to the description of the parts of the experimental setup that I designed and realized, like the Lithium optical setup, the Barium imaging system and the electrical setup of the ion trap, including a compact RF drive based on interdependent resonant circuits that I developed for operating the Paul trap. The last chapter of the thesis is dedicated to this innovative drive.
The atom-ion hybrid system provides us with new platform to study ultracold collisions and chemical reactions, which play important role in quantum simulations, quantum information processing utilizing atom-ion interactions. To investigate chemical reactions in an ultracold regime, we start with neutral atoms trapped in an optical dipole trap and ions in a linear Paul trap, and combine them together to construct a hybrid system. Here we introduce our recent work on ultracold elastic/inelastic collisions at a single atom level with a state-by-state manner in our atom-ion hybrid system. From the quantitative discussion on the collision cross sections, the microscopic collisional mechanisms have been clarified.