Sensitive, 3D micromotion compensation in a surface-electrode ion trap

U. Tanaka, K. Masuda, Y. Akimoto +3 more

J. True Merrill, S. Charles Doret, Kenneth R. Brown +1 more

Y. Ibaraki, U. Tanaka, S. Urabe

Craig Hogle, Ashlyn D. Burch, Jonathan David Sterk +9 more

Excess micromotion can be a substantial source of errors in trapped-ion based quantum processors and clocks due to the sensitivity of the internal states of the ion to external fields and motion. This problem can be fixed by compensating background electric fields in order to position ions at the RF node and minimize their driven micromotion. Here we describe techniques for compensating ion chains in scalable surface ion traps. These traps are capable of cancelling stray electric fields with fine spatial resolution in order to compensate multiple closely spaced ions due to their large number of relatively small control electrodes. We demonstrate a technique that compensates an ion chain to better than 5 V/m and within 0.1 degrees of chain rotation.

Timur Abbasov, Sergei A. Zibrov, I. Sherstov

D. T. C. Allcock, J A Sherman, Derek N. Stacey +8 more

We describe a new electrode design for a surface-electrode Paul trap, which allows rotation of the normal modes out of the trap plane, and a technique for micromotion compensation in all directions using a two-photon process, which avoids the need for an ultraviolet laser directed to the trap plane. The fabrication and characterization of the trap are described, as well as its implementation for the trapping and cooling of single Ca + ions. We also propose a repumping scheme that increases ion fluorescence and simplifies heating rate measurements obtained by time-resolved ion fluorescence during Doppler cooling.