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Physical Review Letters

Resolved-Sideband Raman Cooling of a Bound Atom to the 3D Zero-Point Energy

Christopher R. Monroe, D. M. Meekhof, B. E. King, Steven R. Jefferts, W. M. Itano, David J. Wineland, P. L. Gould

Published Nov 27, 1995• 731 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report laser cooling of a single $^{9}\mathrm{Be}^{+}$ ion held in a rf (Paul) ion trap to where it occupies the quantum-mechanical ground state of motion. With the use of resolved-sideband stimulated Raman cooling, the zero point of motion is achieved 98% of the time in 1D and 92% of the time in 3D. Cooling to the zero-point energy appears to be a crucial prerequisite for future experiments such as the realization of simple quantum logic gates applicable to quantum computation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.75.4011

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We report laser cooling of a single 9Be+^{9}\mathrm{Be}^{+}9Be+ ion held in a rf (Paul) ion trap to where it occupies the quantum-mechanical ground state of motion. With the use of resolved-sideband stimulated Raman cooling, the zero point of motion is achieved 98% of the time in 1D and 92% of the time in 3D. Cooling to the zero-point energy appears to be a crucial prerequisite for future experiments such as the realization of simple quantum logic gates applicable to quantum computation.
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Manipulating individual trapped ions at the single quantum level has become standard practice in radio-frequency ion traps, enabling applications from quantum information processing to precision metrology. The key ingredient is ground-state cooling of the particle's motion through resolved-sideband laser cooling. Ultra-high-presicion experiments using Penning ion traps will greatly benefit from the reduction of systematic errors offered by full motional control, with applications to atomic masses and ggg-factor measurements, determinations of fundamental constants or related tests of fundamental physics. In addition, it will allow to implement quantum logic spectroscopy, a technique that has enabled a new class of precision measurements in radio-frequency ion traps. Here we demonstrate resolved-sideband laser cooling of the axial motion of a single 9^99Be+^++ ion in a cryogenic 5 Tesla Penning trap system using a two-photon stimulated-Raman process, reaching a mean phonon number of nˉz=0.10(4)\bar{n}_z = 0.10(4)nˉz​=0.10(4). This is a fundamental step in the implementation of quantum logic spectroscopy for matter-antimatter comparison tests in the baryonic sector of the Standard Model and a key step towards improved precision experiments in Penning traps operating at the quantum limit.
Efficient cooling of trapped ions is a prerequisite for various applications of the ions in precision spectroscopy, quantum information, and coherence control. Raman sideband cooling is an effective method to cool the ions to their motional ground state. We investigate both numerically and experimentally the optimization of Raman sideband cooling strategies and propose an efficient one, which can simplify the experimental setup as well as reduce the number of cooling pulses. Several cooling schemes are tested and compared through numerical simulations. The simulation result shows that the fixed-width pulses and varied-width pulses have almost the same efficiency for both the first-order and the second-order Raman sideband cooling. The optimized strategy is verified experimentally. A single 25Mg+{^{25}\mathrm{Mg}}^{+}25Mg+ ion is trapped in a linear Paul trap and Raman sideband cooled, and the achieved average vibrational quantum numbers under different cooling strategies are evaluated. A good agreement between the experimental result and the simulation result is obtained.
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.
We trap neutral Cs atoms in a two-dimensional optical lattice and cool them close to the zero point of motion by resolved-sideband Raman cooling. Sideband cooling occurs via transitions between the vibrational manifolds associated with a pair of magnetic sublevels, and the required Raman coupling is provided by the lattice potential itself. We obtain mean vibrational excitations ${\overline{n}}_{x}\ensuremath{\approx}{\overline{n}}_{y}<0.024$, corresponding to a population >95>95%>95 in the vibrational ground state. Atoms in the ground state of an optical lattice provide a new system in which to explore quantum state control and subrecoil laser cooling.
The trapped ion system is one of the most promising and reliable platforms to control and study quantum mechanical phenomena and their applications. For efficient coherent manipulation of both external and internal motional states of an ion, the ion has to be in the ground state of the trapping potential. This can be achieved by resolved sideband cooling, so cooling of the motional mode is a pre-requisite. In a radially symmetric ideal linear trap, the two radial modes are often degenerate, leading to strong coupling between them and hence inefficient cooling by a single laser beam. Here, we show that by breaking the degeneracy of theradial motional modes, sideband cooling can be performed efficiently for a selected radial motional mode. We have achieved an averaged vibrational quantum number < n x > = 0.03(8) in a selected radial direction after resolved sideband cooling for a single barium ion.