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Physical Review A

Laser sideband cooling with positive detuning

Ch. Schwedes, Th. Becker, Joachim von Zanthier, H. Walther, E. Peik

Published May 25, 2004• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An experimental and theoretical study of laser sideband cooling of a trapped ion in a radiofrequency trap is presented. The influence of the micromotion in the time-dependent potential of a Paul trap can lead to a counterintuitive situation, where sideband cooling is possible for positive values of the laser detuning, i.e., for a laser frequency that is higher than the resonance frequency of the ion at rest. The cooling rate and the capture range are calculated in a semiclassical model. Experimental results of laser sideband cooling at positive detuning are demonstrated with a single trapped ${\mathrm{In}}^{+}$ ion stored in a miniature Paul trap.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.69.053412

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An experimental and theoretical study of laser sideband cooling of a trapped ion in a radiofrequency trap is presented. The influence of the micromotion in the time-dependent potential of a Paul trap can lead to a counterintuitive situation, where sideband cooling is possible for positive values of the laser detuning, i.e., for a laser frequency that is higher than the resonance frequency of the ion at rest. The cooling rate and the capture range are calculated in a semiclassical model. Experimental results of laser sideband cooling at positive detuning are demonstrated with a single trapped In+{\mathrm{In}}^{+}In+ ion stored in a miniature Paul trap.
An experimental study of sideband laser cooling of trapped ions in miniature radio-frequency traps is presented. In+{\mathrm{In}}^{+}In+ ions are laser cooled by exciting the narrow intercombination line ${5s}^{2}{}^{1}{S}_{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}5s5p{}^{3}{P}_{1}$, which shows resolved sidebands due to the vibrational motion of the ions in the trap. The influence of the micromotion at the frequency of the oscillating trapping field is investigated. Heating processes through coupling with the trapping field occur for certain regions of negative laser detuning. A method of bichromatic sideband cooling is introduced that combines efficient cooling from high temperatures with the possibility of reaching low mean vibrational quantum numbers 〈n〉<1〈n〉<1〈n〉<1 by using narrow optical transitions. This technique allows recording of high-resolution excitation spectra of the cooling transition in the Lamb-Dicke regime and thus determination of 〈n〉〈n〉〈n〉. Single ions as well as two-ion Coulomb crystals have been cooled to temperatures below $100 \ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$, and population of the ground state of motion to more than 50% over long time scales is demonstrated. These values are close to the lower limit for the detection of vibrational excitation with the present method.
Laser cooling of a single trapped ion in a Paul trap is discussed theoretically in the Lamb-Dicke limit, with full consideration of the time dependence of the trapping potential. Resulting mean kinetic energies are defined as time averages over one period of the micromotion and are compared with final temperatures expected from the laser-cooling treatment with harmonic traps. For laser-atom detunings close to the micromotion frequency the results differ significantly from those expected for a harmonic trap potential. A physical interpretation is given and simple formulas are derived for the strong confinement case.
The limitations to the achievement of low kinetic energies for laser cooling of single ions confined in electromagnetic traps are discussed. Sideband cooling of an ion in an rf (Paul) trap is reexamined including the effects of finite laser bandwidth and the energy of the rf micromotion. The micromotion is the oscillatory motion of the ion at the same frequency as the rf voltage applied to the trap electrodes. Sideband cooling of ions in a Penning trap is examined for the first time. In both cases, cooling to the zero-point energy of the ion in the trap should be possible and a method for verifying this condition is suggested. The implications for high-resolution, high-accuracy spectroscopy are investigated. Under certain conditions, the uncertainty in the second-order Doppler shift may be significantly less than 1 part in 1018{10}^{18}1018. .AE
Several groups have recently used laser cooling to produce ordered arrays of ions, ion crystals, in rf quadrupole ion traps (Paul traps). Laser cooling has been understood using previous theories which ignore ion micromotion and replace the oscillating rf trap potential with a static pseudopotential. We show that in recent experiments, ion micromotion can exceed one wavelength of the cooling radiation and that the resulting Doppler shifts can transform laser cooling into laser heating. Changes in trap voltage, ion position, and laser intensity can all reverse the sign of laser cooling. This, together with ideas of deterministic chaos, can lead to a reinterpretation of experiments on ion crystals. The recognition that effects previously attributed to an experimental artifact, rf heating, may actually be due to a failure of laser cooling opens the door, on the one hand, to precise theories of phase transitions and, on the other, to improved cooling techniques that can permit the creation of larger ion crystals.
Abstract We report on a comparative analysis of quenched sideband cooling in trapped ions. We introduce a theoretical approach for time-efficient simulation of the temporal cooling characteristics and derive the optimal conditions providing fast laser cooling into the ion’s motional ground state. The simulations were experimentally benchmarked with a single 172Yb+ ion confined in a linear Paul trap. Sideband cooling was carried out on a narrow quadrupole transition, enhanced with an additional clear-out laser for controlling the effective linewidth of the cooling transition. Quench cooling was thus for the first time studied in the resolved sideband, intermediate and semi-classical regime. We discuss the non-thermal distribution of Fock states during laser cooling and reveal its impact on time dilation shifts in optical atomic clocks.
We demonstrate efficient resolved sideband laser cooling ($99\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1%$ ground-state population) of a single 40Ca+{}^{40}{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}40Ca+ ion in a large linear Paul trap (electrode spacing of 7 mm) operated at an rf drive frequency of just 3.7 MHz. For ion oscillation frequencies in the range 280--585 kHz, heating rates below or about one motional quantum per second have been measured at room temperature. The results, obtained under these unconventional sideband cooling conditions, pave the way for a range of new types of cold ion experiments, including spectroscopy of molecular ions as well as ultracold chemistry.