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arXiv:1701.03187 · Review of Scientific Instruments

Note: Single ion imaging and fluorescence collection with a parabolic mirror trap

Chen-Kuan Chou, Carolyn Auchter, Jennifer Lilieholm, Kevin C. Smith, B. B. Blinov

Published Aug 1, 2017• 15 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Efficient fluorescence collection is the most challenging part in remote entangled ion qubit state generation. To address this issue, we developed an ion trap consisting of a reflective parabolic surface and a needle electrode. This parabolic trap design covers a solid angle of 2π steradians and allows precise ion placement at the focal point of the parabola. We measured (39 ± 3)% fluorescence collection from a single ion with this trap and analyzed the mirror optical performance. We observed single ion image spot size of 3.4 times diffraction limit, improved to 2.8 times diffraction limit with the help of an external deformable mirror. The micromotion of the ion is determined to be the limiting factor, and the result is consistent with theoretical calculation.

DOI
10.1063/1.4996506

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Efficient fluorescence collection is the most challenging part in remote entangled ion qubit state generation. To address this issue, we developed an ion trap consisting of a reflective parabolic surface and a needle electrode. This parabolic trap design covers a solid angle of 2π steradians and allows precise ion placement at the focal point of the parabola. We measured (39 ± 3)% fluorescence collection from a single ion with this trap and analyzed the mirror optical performance. We observed single ion image spot size of 3.4 times diffraction limit, improved to 2.8 times diffraction limit with the help of an external deformable mirror. The micromotion of the ion is determined to be the limiting factor, and the result is consistent with theoretical calculation.
Trapped, laser-cooled atoms and ions produce intense fluorescence of the order 107~108 photons per second. Detection of this fluorescence enables efficient measurement of the quantum state of qubits based on trapped atoms. It is desirable to collect a large fraction of the photons to make the detection faster and more reliable. Additionally, efficient fluorescence collection can improve the speed and fidelity of remote ion entanglement and quantum gates. Refractive and reflective optics, and optical cavities have all been used to collect the trapped ion fluorescence with up to about 10% efficiency. Here we show a novel ion trap design that incorporates a metallic spherical mirror as the integral part of the trap itself, being its RF electrode. The mirror geometry enables up to 35% solid angle collection of trapped ion fluorescence. The movable central pin electrode of this trap allows precise placement of the ion at the focus of the reflector. We characterize the performance of the mirror, and measure 25% collection efficiency, likely limited by the imperfections of the mirror surface. We also study the properties of the images of single ions formed by the spherical mirror and apply aberration correction with an aspherical element placed outside the vacuum system. Owing to the simplicity of its design, this trap structure can be adapted for microfabrication and integration into more complex trap architectures.
We demonstrate the trapping of a single ion in the focus of a deep parabolic mirror that covers 81% of the solid angle surrounding the ion. Accounting for the reflectivity of the mirror we infer a photon collection efficiency of 54.8% for our setup. The underlying experimentally detected maximum fluorescence rate is $1.91\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}$ s${}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ from a single 174{}^{174}174Yb+{}^{+}+ ion, mainly limited by the quantum efficiency of our photon detector. Besides the high collection efficiency, the integration of an ion trap into a parabolic mirror is a key ingredient for efficient coupling of light to a single ion in free space.
We improved photon collection efficiency from single trapped ions by integrating a high numerical aperture spherical mirror into a linear Paul trap. Satisfactory single ion images were achieved by compensating the large spherical aberration of the mirror by a specially designed aspheric corrector. We also designed a new RF ion trap with the metallic spherical mirror acting as one of the trap electrodes. This trap will greatly increase the efficiency of ion fluorescence collection for ion-photon and remote ion entanglement.
We propose a novel ion trap design with the high collection efficiency parabolic-mirror integrated with the ion trap electrodes. This design has three radio frequency (RF) electrodes and eight direct current(DC) compensation electrodes. By carefully adjusting three RF voltages, the parabolic mirror focus can be made precisely coincident with the RF null point. Thus, the aberration and the ion micromotion can be minimized at the same time. This monolithic design can significantly improve the ion-ion entanglement generation speed by extending the photon collecting solid angle beyond 90%⋅4π90\%\cdot4π90%⋅4π. Further analysis of the trapping setup shows that the RF voltage variation method relexes machining accuracy to a broad range. This design is expected to be a robust scheme for trapping ion to speed entanglement network node.
Efficient collection of fluorescence from trapped ions is crucial for quantum optics and quantum computing applications, specifically for qubit state detection and in generating single photons for ion-photon and remote ion entanglement. In a typical setup, only a few percent of the ion fluorescence is intercepted by the aperture of the imaging optics. We employ a simple metallic spherical mirror integrated with a linear Paul ion trap to achieve a photon collection efficiency of at least 1010%10 from a single Ba+{}^{+}+ ion. An aspheric corrector is used to reduce the aberrations caused by the mirror and achieve high image quality.