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Physical Review A

Quantum mechanics in rotating-radio-frequency traps and Penning traps with a quadrupole rotating field

Kentaro Abe, Taro Hasegawa

Published Mar 4, 2010• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum-mechanical analysis of ion motion in a rotating-radio-frequency (rrf) trap or in a Penning trap with a quadrupole rotating field is carried out. Rrf traps were introduced by Hasegawa and Bollinger [Phys. Rev. A 72, 043404 (2005)]. The classical motion of a single ion in this trap is described by only trigonometric functions, whereas in the conventional linear radio-frequency (rf) traps it is by the Mathieu functions. Because of the simple classical motion in the rrf trap, it is expected that the quantum-mechanical analysis of the rrf traps is also simple compared to that of the linear rf traps. The analysis of Penning traps with a quadrupole rotating field is also possible in a way similar to the rrf traps. As a result, the Hamiltonian in these traps is the same as the two-dimensional harmonic oscillator, and energy levels and wave functions are derived as exact results. In these traps, it is found that one of the vibrational modes in the rotating frame can have negative energy levels, which means that the zero-quantum-number state (``ground'' state) is the highest energy state.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.81.033402

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Quantum-mechanical analysis of ion motion in a rotating-radio-frequency (rrf) trap or in a Penning trap with a quadrupole rotating field is carried out. Rrf traps were introduced by Hasegawa and Bollinger [Phys. Rev. A 72, 043404 (2005)]. The classical motion of a single ion in this trap is described by only trigonometric functions, whereas in the conventional linear radio-frequency (rf) traps it is by the Mathieu functions. Because of the simple classical motion in the rrf trap, it is expected that the quantum-mechanical analysis of the rrf traps is also simple compared to that of the linear rf traps. The analysis of Penning traps with a quadrupole rotating field is also possible in a way similar to the rrf traps. As a result, the Hamiltonian in these traps is the same as the two-dimensional harmonic oscillator, and energy levels and wave functions are derived as exact results. In these traps, it is found that one of the vibrational modes in the rotating frame can have negative energy levels, which means that the zero-quantum-number state (``ground'' state) is the highest energy state.
We discuss a radio-frequency (rf) ion trap, the rotating-radio-frequency (rotating-rf) trap, in which the motion of a charged particle is described by trigonometric functions rather than the usual Mathieu functions of a normal rf trap. In the rotating-rf trap, a rotating quadrupole electric field confines charged particles, whereas in a normal rf trap, an oscillating quadrupole electric field does. Ion motion in a rotating-rf trap is a superposition of two nondegenerate circular secular motions and two corresponding circular micromotions. The cases of applying a uniform dc magnetic field or a quadrupole dc electric field in addition to the rotating-rf field are also discussed. Confinement in a rotating-rf trap can be tighter than in a normal linear rf trap with the same experimental parameter values.
We discuss a radio-frequency (rf) ion trap, the rotating-radio-frequency (rotating-rf) trap, in which the motion of a charged particle is described by trigonometric functions rather than the usual Mathieu functions of a normal rf trap. In the rotating-rf trap, a rotating quadrupole electric field confines charged particles, whereas in a normal rf trap, an oscillating quadrupole electric field does. Ion motion in a rotating-rf trap is a superposition of two nondegenerate circular secular motions and two corresponding circular micromotions. The cases of applying a uniform dc magnetic field or a quadrupole dc electric field in addition to the rotating-rf field are also discussed. Confinement in a rotating-rf trap can be tighter than in a normal linear rf trap with the same experimental parameter values.
We discuss the experimental realization of the rotating radio-frequency (rrf) trap, proposed by Hasegawa and Bollinger [Phys. Rev. A 72, 043403 (2005)]. Compared to a traditional linear rf (lrf) Paul trap, the rrf trap is a closer analogy to the popular mechanical lecture demonstration for a Paul trap. In an ion trap with reslistic, non-ideal electrode geometry, the rrf trap averages over angular variations in the effective potential. This averaging provides more uniform confinement and reduces ion loss at equal confinement strength compared with the lrf trap. This feature makes the rrf trap configuration advantageous for precision metrology application, such as electron electric dipole moment (eEDM) measurements.
Laser cooled ions in a Penning trap can be isolated from the environment by placing them in vacuum and only interacting with them through optical and RF fields. The number of trapped particles can be varied from a single ion up to thousands. Confinement is provided by a static homogeneous magnetic field and a quadrupole electric potential. In the natural frame of the ions, this appears as a 3D simple harmonic potential. Therefore three dimensional structures can be formed in the absence of any additional RF field which may lead to heating as is the case with RF traps. There are 3N different motional modes for N particles. I present an analysis of the motion of a single particle showing that the energy levels for all three modes are equally spaced. I also describe the interaction between a trapped two level atom and an optical field. During my time in the lab the laser and computer control of the experiment has been significantly improved. In addition, an existing trap was modified to provide greater optical access and fluorescence collection. This allowed the vibrational levels superimposed on the internal states of a single 40Ca+ ion to be resolved via a narrow linewidth, electric quadrupole transition. This is the first observation of magnetron and modified cyclotron sidebands on an optical transition. When more than one calcium ion is laser cooled, and their temperature reduced below 5mK, they form a Coulomb crystal. The locations of the ions minimise the total potential energy which is comprised of the Coulomb repulsion and trap potential. The fluorescence collection optics have been arranged to resolve individual ions in these crystals. Information about the motion of the ions is deduced by comparing photos from the experiment to numerical simulations. Previously, only two ions have ever been aligned along the magnetic field in a Penning trap. I present strings of up to 29 particles and suggest the only limitation, apart from the electrode structure, is the overlap of the laser beams with the ions.
When a Penning trap is operated with an additional quadrupole driving field with a frequency that equals a suitable combination (sum or difference) of the frequencies of the fundamental modes of motion (modified cyclotron, magnetron and axial frequency), then a periodic conversion of the participating modes into each other is observed, strongly resembling the Rabi oscillations in a 2-level atom driven by a laser field tuned to the transition frequency. This investigation attempts to understand on a fundamental level how and why the motion of a classical particle in a macroscopic apparatus can be truely analogous to the oscillations of states of quantum mechanical 2-level systems (2-level atom or magnetic resonance). Ion motion in a Penning trap with an additional quadrupole driving field is described in a quantum mechanical frame work. The Heisenberg equations of motion for the creation and annihilation operators of the interacting oscillators have been explicitly solved, the time development operator of the Schrödinger picture has been determined. The driving field provides for two types of intermode interaction: Type I preserves the total number of excitation quanta present in the two interacting modes, the system oscillates between the modes with a frequency corresponding to the Rabi frequency in two-level systems. Type II preserves the difference of the numbers of excitation quanta present in the two interacting modes, it causes the ion motion to become unbounded. The two types of interaction are associated in a natural way with a SU(2) and a SU(1,1) Lie algebra. The three generators of these algebras form a vector operator that we denote as the Bloch vector operator. The Hilbert space decomposes in a natural way into invariant subspaces, finite dimensional in the case of type I interaction (SU(2)-algebra) and infinite dimensional in the case of type II interaction (SU(1,1)-algebra). The physics of the 2-level atom in the laser field can be described in the 2-dimensional (the lowest nontrivial) sector of the Hilbert space associated with the type I (SU(2)-algebra) interaction. The Bloch vector, well known from quantum optics, is the expectation value of our Bloch operator. On the other hand, the description of ion motion in the Penning trap requires the whole infinite dimensional Hilbert space of our model. Classical ion trajectories are obtained by calculating for the observables corresponding to position and momentum the expectation values with respect to minimum uncertainty coherent oscillator states.
A combined trap is a quadrupole trap to which the fields of both the Paul and the Penning traps are applied. In this paper, equations of motion for ions confined in a combined trap are derived from first principles. The equations of motion are shown to give well-understood solutions for the Paul and Penning traps in the appropriate cases before they are solved to yield the axial and radial oscillation frequencies for ions in a combined trap. The dependence of these oscillation frequencies on the applied fields is investigated.