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Communications in Theoretical Physics

A Study of the Characteristics of the Wave Packets of a Paul-Trapped Ion

Feng Mang, Juhao Wu, Wang Kelin

Published Jun 15, 1998• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Based on the former studies, the time-dependent characteristics of the wave packets of a Paul-trapped ion are investigated explicitly in cylindrical coordinates by the method of function series expansion (FSE). It is shown that the present work relates the quantum motion of a Paul-trapped ion to the orbit of the classical motion and presents a more clear physical picture than the former studies.

DOI
10.1088/0253-6102/29/4/497

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Based on the former studies, the time-dependent characteristics of the wave packets of a Paul-trapped ion are investigated explicitly in cylindrical coordinates by the method of function series expansion (FSE). It is shown that the present work relates the quantum motion of a Paul-trapped ion to the orbit of the classical motion and presents a more clear physical picture than the former studies.
Using numerical simulations of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, we study the full quantum dynamics of the motion of an atomic ion in a linear Paul trap. Such a trap is based on a time-varying, periodic electric field and hence corresponds to a time-dependent potential for the ion, which we model exactly. We compare the center-of-mass motion with that obtained from classical equations of motion, as well as to results based on a time-independent effective potential. We also study the oscillations of the width of the ion’s wave packet, including close to the border between stable (bounded) and unstable (unbounded) trajectories. Our results confirm that the center-of-mass motion always follows the classical trajectory, that the width of the wave packet is bounded for trapping within the stability region, and therefore that the classical trapping criterion is fully applicable to quantum motion.
We study the quantum stability of the dynamics of ions in a Paul trap. We revisit previous results that showed that quantum trajectories did not have the same region of stability as their classical counterpart, contrary to what is obtained from a Floquet analysis of the motion in the periodic trapping field. Using numerical simulations of the full wave-packet dynamics, we confirm that the classical trapping criterion is fully applicable to quantum motion, when considering both the expectation value of the position of the wave packet and its width.
With time and space transformation, we first solve the Schrödinger equation of the time-dependent harmonic oscillator (TDHO) system. The properties of the squeezing in the case of , i.e., the Paul trap and , namely a stable frequency interfered by a single-pulsing-type disturbance, are investigated by using function series expansion. Results in the former case are compared with the numerical calculations carried out before. It is found that the condition related to the most strong squeezing is the direct result of our method, not any approximation is needed. Solutions of the latter one are valuable for the study of the ion trap, where different cases are studied in detail. Finally we made a discussion for the measurement and observation of a trapped ion by using squeezing properties.
The main objective of this study is to investigate the quantum mechanical lifetime of a trapped ion in a Paul trap. The motivation for this research is that there are several applications of trapped ion devices such as mass spectrometers, atomic clocks, and quantum computers. Active research is presently ongoing in the subject of an ion trapping by electric and magnetic fields. There are many classical studies of the characteristics of trapped ions, however there have been relatively few done quantum mechanically. It might be expected that purely quantum effects could play an important role in describing the trapped ions. So, those are the main factors behind the research on this topic. Time-dependent perturbation theory was used in this study which is to find the quantum mechanical lifetime of trapped ion in a Paul trap because time-dependent perturbation theory allows describing the complex system with the help of a simple system that can be calculated easily. It is shown that the lifetime of a trapped ion depends on its transition frequency and the transition between two allowed quantum states of the ion. The transition frequency of an ion has to be very close to the applied frequency of alternating current (AC). The results show that the lifetime of a trapped ion can be adjusted as desired for experimentation.
We have studied the quantum and classical motions of a single Paul trapped ion interacting with a time-periodic laser field. By using the test-function method, we construct n exact solutions of quantum dynamics that describe the generalized squeezed coherent states with the expectation orbits being the corresponding classical ones. The space-time evolutions of the exact probability densities show some wavepacket trains. It is demonstrated analytically that by adjusting the laser intensity and frequency, we can control the center motions of the wavepacket trains. We also discuss the other physical properties such as the expectation value of energy, the widths and heights of the wavepackets, and the resonance loss of stability.
We examine the time-dependent dynamics of ion crystals in radiofrequency traps. The problem of stable trapping of general three-dimensional crystals is considered and the validity of the pseudopotential approximation is discussed. We analytically derive the micromotion amplitude of the ions, rigorously proving well-known experimental observations. We use a recently proposed method to find the modes that diagonalize the linearized time-dependent dynamical problem. This allows one to obtain explicitly the ('Floquet–Lyapunov') transformation to coordinates of decoupled linear oscillators. We demonstrate the utility of the method by analyzing the modes of a small 'peculiar' crystal in a linear Paul trap. The calculations can be readily generalized to multispecies ion crystals in general multipole traps, and time-dependent quantum wavefunctions of ion oscillations in such traps can be obtained.