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arXiv:1409.6572 · Reviews of Modern Physics

Ion-trap measurements of electric-field noise near surfaces

Michael Brownnutt, Muir Kumph, Peter Rabl, R. Blatt

Published Dec 11, 2015• 413 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

How can the electric noise in the vicinity of a metallic body be measured and understood? Trapped ions, known as unique tools for metrology and quantum information processing, also constitute very sensitive probes of this electric noise for distances from micrometers to millimeters. This paper presents various models for the origin of the electric noise, provides a critical review of the experimental findings, and summarizes the important questions that are still open in this active research area.

DOI
10.1103/revmodphys.87.1419

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How can the electric noise in the vicinity of a metallic body be measured and understood? Trapped ions, known as unique tools for metrology and quantum information processing, also constitute very sensitive probes of this electric noise for distances from micrometers to millimeters. This paper presents various models for the origin of the electric noise, provides a critical review of the experimental findings, and summarizes the important questions that are still open in this active research area.
Electric-field noise in proximity to metallic surfaces is a poorly understood phenomenon that appears in different areas of physics. Trapped ion quantum information processors are particularly susceptible to this noise, leading to motional decoherence, which ultimately limits the fidelity of quantum operations. On the other hand, trapped ions present an ideal tool to study this effect, opening new possibilities in surface science. In this work we analyze and measure the polarization of the noise field in a microfabricated ion trap for various noise sources. We find that technical noise sources and noise emanating directly from the surface give rise to different degrees of polarization, which allows us to differentiate between the two noise sources. Based on this we demonstrate a method to infer the magnitude of surface noise in the presence of technical noise.
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Motional heating of ions in microfabricated traps is one of the open challenges hindering experimental realizations of large-scale quantum processing devices. Recently, a series of measurements of the heating rates in surface-electrode ion traps characterized their frequency, distance, and temperature dependencies, but our understanding of the microscopic origin of this noise remains incomplete. In this work we develop a theoretical model for the electric field noise which is associated with a random distribution of adsorbed atoms on the trap electrode surface. By using first-principles calculations of the fluctuating dipole moments of the adsorbed atoms we evaluate the distance, frequency, and temperature dependence of the resulting electric field fluctuation spectrum. Our theory reproduces correctly the ${d}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ dependence with distance of the ion from the electrode surface and calculates the noise spectrum beyond the standard scenario of two-level fluctuators by incorporating all the relevant vibrational states. Our model predicts a regime of 1/f1/f1/f noise which commences at roughly the frequency of the fundamental phonon transition rate and a thermally activated noise spectrum which for higher temperatures exhibits a crossover as a function of frequency.
Electric-field noise is a major limiting factor in the performance of ion traps and other quantum devices. Despite intensive research over the past decade, the nature and cause of electric field noise near surfaces is not well understood. This dissertation reports the high- temperature dependence of electric-field noise above an Al-Cu surface using a trapped 40Ca+ ion as a probe.We employ a novel setup with a surface ion trap mounted on a heater for studies of the temperature dependence of electric-field noise. To characterize the Al-Cu material, we explore the effects of heat treatment through ex situ annealing followed by inspection in a scanning electron microscope. To calibrate the temperature of the trap, we demonstrate the use of thermal imaging for monitoring the temperature of an ion trap in vacuum.The temperature and frequency dependence of electric-field noise above the surface is measured using the heating rate of a single ion in a surface-electrode Paul trap. We find that the heating rate saturates at temperatures greater than 450 K. We find that the frequency dependence shows a 1/f behavior, and has a lower frequency scaling exponent at high temperatures than at room temperature. We show that these results are a reflection of the surface-related noise by eliminating other possible sources of noise.Building on historical data for resistance fluctuations in thin films, we develop the thermally-activated fluctuator model to describe the results. We find that a broad distribution of fluctuators with energy barriers peaked around 0.5 eV accurately models both the temperature and frequency dependence of the electric-field noise measured. We present the interpretation of this model as a way to infer that the cause of electric-field noise in the trap is likely defect motion in the metal surface, connecting the problems faced in ion trapping to a large body of work in solid state physics.
We demonstrate the use of a single trapped ion as a sensor to probe electric-field noise from interchangeable test surfaces. As proof of principle, we measure the magnitude and distance dependence of electric-field noise from two ion-trap-like samples with patterned Au electrodes. This trapped-ion sensor could be combined with other surface characterization tools to help elucidate the mechanisms that give rise to electric-field noise from ion-trap surfaces. Such noise presents a significant hurdle for performing large-scale trapped-ion quantum computations.
Single-atom quantum sensors offer high spatial resolution and high sensitivity to electric and magnetic fields. Among them, trapped ions offer exceptional performance in sensing electric fields, which has been used in particular to probe these in the proximity of metallic surfaces. However, the flexibility of previous work was limited by the use of radio-frequency trapping fields, which has restricted spatial scanning to linear translations, and calls into question whether observed phenomena are connected to the presence of the radio-frequency fields. Here, using a Penning trap instead, we demonstrate a single ion probe which offers three-dimensional position scanning at distances between 505050 μmμ\mathrm{m}μm and 450450450 μmμ\mathrm{m}μm from a metallic surface and above a 200×200200\times200200×200 μm2μ\mathrm{m}^{2}μm2 area, allowing us to reconstruct static and time-varying electric as well as magnetic fields. We use this to map charge distributions on the metallic surface and noise stemming from it. The methods demonstrated here allow similar probing to be carried out on samples with a variety of materials, surface constitutions and geometries, providing a new tool for surface science.