For an ion in a Paul trap, the effect of the micromotion on the heating by stray electric fields is studied analytically. A sequence of unitary transformations, set up from the solutions to the classical dynamics, leads to the exact quantum time propagator for each realization of the random classical field; subsequently, a statistical average is performed to obtain the fidelity of the motional ground state. In this nonperturbative approach, the role of the micromotion in the depopulation is understood as an effective change in the time dependence of the external field and an intrinsic modulation of the heating rate; it is shown that the consequent enhanced complexity of the dynamics can result in a reduction of the heating time.
Excess micromotion induced by stray DC electric fields limits the control fidelity of trapped-ion experiments. Various techniques have been developed to detect and compensate ion displacements from the RF null by monitoring modulated fluorescence, ion positions, or micromotion sidebands. Although these approaches are effective, they do not probe the displacement through a ground-state-cooled motional mode and therefore offer limited compatibility with quantum-enhanced sensing protocols. Here, we demonstrate a micromotion compensation method based on the driven coherent amplitude of a ground-state-cooled motional mode. In this approach, the ion displacement is converted into a coherent motional excitation by an auxiliary RF drive and detected through the qubit. We determine the optimal compensation field with a
1σ statistical uncertainty of 8 mV/m. The method is naturally compatible with quantum-enhanced sensing protocols employing nonclassical motional states, including Fock, squeezed, and Schrödinger-cat states, providing a pathway toward quantum-enhanced micromotion compensation.
Micromotion is the driven motion of trapped ions in rf traps. In practical traps, the micromotion is often greatly enhanced due to “dirty effects” such as stray dc fields from surface patch effects and/or rf phase differences between the endcaps of a quadrupole trap. Large micromotions can have adverse effects on precision measurements and quantum experiments that the trapped ions are best suited for. We present here a new approach to reduce and eliminate the enhanced micromotion. The approach uses a novel Paul-Straubel-Kingdon trap in which ions are loaded indirectly to avoid contamination of the trap surfaces.