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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Paul–Straubel–Kingdon trap for true zero-point confinement of an individual ion and reservoir

HANS G. DEHMELT, Nan Yu

Published Sep 16, 1997• 4 citations

Abstract

A modification of the Paul-Straubel trap previously described by us may profitably be operated in a Paul-Straubel-Kingdon (PSK) mode during the initial loading of an individual ion into the trap. Thereby the coating of the trap ring electrode by the atomic beam directed upon it in earlier experiments is eliminated, as is the ionization of an already trapped ion. Coating created serious problems as it spot-wise changed the work function of the ring electrode, which caused large, uncontrolled dc fields in the trap center that prevented zero-point confinement. Operating the Paul-Straubel trap with a small negative bias on the ring electrode wire is all that is required to realize the PSK mode. In this mode the tiny ring trap in the center of the long, straight wire section is surrounded by a second trapping well shaped like a long, thin-walled cylindrical shell and extending to the end-caps. There, ions may be conveniently created in this well without danger of coating the ring with barium. In addition, the long second well is useful as a multi-ion reservoir.

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.94.19.10031

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A modification of the Paul-Straubel trap previously described by us may profitably be operated in a Paul-Straubel-Kingdon (PSK) mode during the initial loading of an individual ion into the trap. Thereby the coating of the trap ring electrode by the atomic beam directed upon it in earlier experiments is eliminated, as is the ionization of an already trapped ion. Coating created serious problems as it spot-wise changed the work function of the ring electrode, which caused large, uncontrolled dc fields in the trap center that prevented zero-point confinement. Operating the Paul-Straubel trap with a small negative bias on the ring electrode wire is all that is required to realize the PSK mode. In this mode the tiny ring trap in the center of the long, straight wire section is surrounded by a second trapping well shaped like a long, thin-walled cylindrical shell and extending to the end-caps. There, ions may be conveniently created in this well without danger of coating the ring with barium. In addition, the long second well is useful as a multi-ion reservoir.

In some recently proposed experiments using ion traps, a Paul trap of conventional size and design is insufficient. We have constructed a miniature Paul-Straubel trap. It has a small elliptic ring ( approximately 0.2 mm) and three pairs of planar electrodes ( approximately 2 cm part) arranged so that they form a cube. The two conventional end-cap electrodes are replaced by the six planar electrodes. The ring is heatable to a high temperature for improving the uniformity of the dc potential on the ring surface. With this trap, we hope to do such fundamental studies as the true zero-point confinement of a single ion.

New Paul–Straubel traps [H. Straubel, Naturwissenschaften 18, 506 (1955)] have been recently constructed and used to trap single Ba+ ions. Unlike a conventional rf trap, these traps use only a ring electrode surrounded by an uncritical ground electrode structure. The overall simplicity makes it easy to miniaturize the trap and to control the trapping potential spatial orientation. The new design also allows intense heating of the ring electrode with an ion in the trap simply by passing a large current through it. This removes surface layers responsible for large contact potentials varying over the ring surface and greatly reduces the forced micromotion of the ion, which is supposedly ‘‘at rest.’’

We have developed a trapped ion system for producing two-dimensional (2D) ion crystals for applications in scalable quantum computing, quantum simulations, and 2D crystal phase transition and defect studies. The trap is a modification of a Paul trap with its ring electrode flattened and split into eight identical sectors and its two endcap electrodes shaped as truncated hollow cones for laser and imaging optics access. All ten trap electrodes can be independently DC-biased to create various aspect ratio trap geometries. We trap and Doppler cool 2D crystals of up to 30 Ba+ ions and demonstrate the tunability of the trapping potential both in the plane of the crystal and in the transverse direction.

We produce large numbers of low-energy ions by photoionization of laser-cooled atoms inside a surface-electrode-based Paul trap. The isotope-selective trap's loading rate of $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ions}∕\mathrm{s}$ exceeds that attained by photoionization (electron-impact ionization) of an atomic beam by three (six) orders of magnitude. Traps as shallow as

0.13\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}

are easily loaded with this technique. The ions are confined in the same spatial region as the laser-cooled atoms, which will allow the experimental investigation of interactions between cold ions and cold atoms or Bose-Einstein condensates.

Abstract As a result of the current increase in interest in quantum computing and the unrelenting attempt to develop and establish a quantum computer, Many researchers in this field have turned to designing appropriate algorithms or investigating the possibilities of controlling and manipulating the quantum state. One of the most promising techniques involves using single ionized atoms kept in Paul traps. Each ion's internal state represents the lowest quantum informational unit (a qubit). That research used the trapped ions 40Ca + to illustrate a quantum qubit. According to the Paul linear trap, one of the essential traps for confining ions in one dimension, they may be easily handled and controlled in the quantum state. We used MATLAB programs to simulate the factors affecting the confined state and their impact on it after resolving Mathieu's equation and determining the vibrational state of the ion. That consists of superposition cases between the secular monition and the Micromotion. The a and q values in Mathieu's equation are necessary for three-dimensional confinement for the solutions to be simultaneously stable in both directions. The parameter a depends on the Dc voltage, the ion's mass, the Radio frequencies, and the distance between the trap center and the electrodes. The control by a variable voltage provided it. In addition, it illustrates its effect in a specific chain of trapped ions. This study opens the door to understanding the ideal condition through which it ensures the best state of confinement and selecting what is necessary to reach the resonance state for ions transport from the state (4S1/2) to the state (4P1/2). After that, the manipulation of the quantum state begins.