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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Miniaturized UV fluorescence collection optics integrated with ion trap chips

Gregory R. Brady, Shanalyn A. Kemme, A. Robert Ellis

Published Jul 1, 2010• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

For practical quantum computing, it will be necessary to detect the fluorescence from trapped ions using microscale ion trap chips. We describe the first design, fabrication and assembly of a set of diffractive optics for intimate integration into the trap chip and for coupling this fluorescence into multimode fibers. The design is complicated by the constraints of the ion trap environment. In addition, the choice of available materials is restricted to those compatible with ultrahigh vacuum. The completed optics-ion trap assembly has successfully demonstrated ion trapping, as well as ion shuttling, with no necessary modifications to the trapping and shuttling voltage levels.

DOI
10.1117/12.871023

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For practical quantum computing, it will be necessary to detect the fluorescence from trapped ions using microscale ion trap chips. We describe the first design, fabrication and assembly of a set of diffractive optics for intimate integration into the trap chip and for coupling this fluorescence into multimode fibers. The design is complicated by the constraints of the ion trap environment. In addition, the choice of available materials is restricted to those compatible with ultrahigh vacuum. The completed optics-ion trap assembly has successfully demonstrated ion trapping, as well as ion shuttling, with no necessary modifications to the trapping and shuttling voltage levels.
Future quantum computing devices are expected to rely on the detection of multiple individual trapped ions. In recent work, scientists have used a fiber-optic coupled array of diffraction lenses to discriminate the fluorescence of individual Ca+{}^{+}+ ions. Their array is scaleable and achieves efficiencies of nearly 0.4% at detection times of under 200 microseconds.
This thesis describes the use of diffractive mirrors for efficient collection of photons from an ion in a modern surface Paul trap. Ion light collection is one of the important steps of most of the quantum computing and communication protocols using trapped ions and has a direct effect on the performance of these protocols. This is the first demonstration of an integrated-optic for a surface ion trap and a step towards realizing scalable quantum computing and communication using trapped ions. These mirrors are monolithically integrated onto the ground electrode of the trap. The fabrication of the mirrors has been accomplished by patterning diffraction rings on the silicon dioxide substrate of the trap chip and then coating it with aluminium to form a diffractive mirror integrated onto the electrode. We verified that the altered trap is still functional and demonstrated that thesemirrors substantially increase the efficiency of free space ion light collection and ion light single mode bre coupling. The mirror design is aberration free and we demonstrated this by obtaining near Diffraction-limited images of an ion. To measure the collection efficiency of the diffractive mirrors, we performed a single photon generation protocol based on an optical pumping scheme and one chapter of this thesis describes the implementation of this scheme.
Integration of fiber optics may play a critical role in the development of quantum information processors based on trapped ions and atoms by enabling scalable collection and delivery of light and coupling trapped ions to optical microcavities. We trap 24Mg+ ions in a surface-electrode Paul trap that includes an integrated optical fiber for detecting 280-nm fluorescence photons. The collection numerical aperture is 0.37, and total collection efficiency is 2.1%. The ion can be positioned between 80 and 100 μm from the tip of the fiber by use of an adjustable rf pseudopotential.
Abstract Quantum networking links quantum processors through remote entanglement for distributed quantum information processing and secure long-range communication. Trapped ions are a leading quantum information processing platform, having demonstrated universal small-scale processors and roadmaps for large-scale implementation. Overall rates of ion–photon entanglement generation, essential for remote trapped ion entanglement, are limited by coupling efficiency into single mode fibers and scaling to many ions. Here, we show a microfabricated trap with integrated diffractive mirrors that couples 4.1(6)% of the fluorescence from a174Yb+ion into a single mode fiber, nearly triple the demonstrated bulk optics efficiency. The integrated optic collects 5.8(8)% of theπtransition fluorescence, images the ion with sub-wavelength resolution, and couples 71(5)% of the collected light into the fiber. Our technology is suitable for entangling multiple ions in parallel and overcomes mode quality limitations of existing integrated optical interconnects.
With all the key elements of quantum computing in ion traps demonstrated by the research community, the focus is now placed on building more sophisticated traps with larger numbers of ions to allow practical scale information processing. One promising avenue is to store ions in and shuttle them between many independent traps which serve as potential interaction sites. The core of the work described in this thesis is the experimental evaluation of a microfabricated segmented ion trap, built by Sandia National Laboratories ("Sandia trap"). These experiments required construction of a wholly new optical setup including laser and detection systems, a vacuum system and control electronics. Among our experimental achievements were: successful loading of single and pairs of ions in the microscale trap, measurement of ion storage lifetime, measurement of the motional heating rate with a time-resolved Doppler-cooling method — which showed above than average heating, and implemented a single-ion shuttling method — which reliably transferred the ion through a distance of 360 μm (two DC electrode widths away) and back. These results have been used to improve the next version of the Sandia trap design. We also used computer modelling to study several aspects of ion traps: a mesoscopic ion trap designed for fast ion separation, simulated ion loading to quantify requirements for successful trapping in small and shallow traps, and analyzed a precise shuttling method — where the time dependence of the trapping potential is engineered such that there is minimal motional heating. The results show that ion trap arrays at the 100 μm distance scale are feasible and suggests that such multiple trap designs merit further study.