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Chinese Physics B

Quantum feedback cooling of two trapped ions

Shuo Zhang, Wei Wu, Chun-Wang Wu, Feng‐Guang Li, Tan Li, Xiang Wang, Wan‐Su Bao

Published Jun 1, 2017• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a sub-Doppler cooling scheme of a two-trapped-ion crystal by quantum feedback control method. In the scheme, we obtain the motional information by continuously measuring the spontaneous emission photons from one single ion of the crystal, and then apply a feedback force to cool the whole chain down.We derive the cooling dynamics of the cooling scheme using quantum feedback theory and quantum regression theorem. The result shows that with experimentally achievable parameters, our scheme can achieve lower temperature and faster cooling rate than Doppler cooling.

DOI
10.1088/1674-1056/26/7/074205

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•Nov 20, 2024•0 citations
We present a sub-Doppler cooling scheme of a two-trapped-ion crystal by quantum feedback control method. In the scheme, we obtain the motional information by continuously measuring the spontaneous emission photons from one single ion of the crystal, and then apply a feedback force to cool the whole chain down.We derive the cooling dynamics of the cooling scheme using quantum feedback theory and quantum regression theorem. The result shows that with experimentally achievable parameters, our scheme can achieve lower temperature and faster cooling rate than Doppler cooling.
We report on a simple and easy to implement method of feedback cooling trapped ions to temperatures below those achievable using only Doppler cooling. Additionally, the feedback cooling results in significantly shorter cooling times. For selected parameters, we demonstrate cooling to temperatures below ℏΓ/2kB\hbarΓ/2 k_\mathrm{B}ℏΓ/2kB​. The motion of a single ion is monitored in real-time, allowing for the generation of a feedback signal that is applied to an auxiliary trap electrode. Motion detection is implemented by imaging the fluorescence photons emitted by the ion onto a knife edge and detecting the transmitted light, a method used so far to cool trapped nanoparticles. The intensity modulation of the fluorescence resulting from the ion motion is used to generate and apply the feedback signal and also to determine the ion temperature. While the method benefits from a high rate of detected scattered photons, which can be a challenge, and which we address by using a parabolic mirror for collecting the fluorescence, we expect the method to also be applicable when using lenses with moderate numerical apertures.
We propose a sub-Doppler cooling scheme for trapped-ion crystals in Paul traps. The combination of a hollow tweezer and microwave drive creates an effective two-level system which is cooled through attractive Sisyphus cooling. For 171Yb+{}^{171}\rm{Yb}^+171Yb+ ions, we numerically identify optimal parameters for one- and two-ion crystals, and investigate the cooling rate in ion crystals with up to three ions. Our cooling scheme utilizes a single ion addressed with a tweezer to achieve sub-Doppler cooling of the NNN axial motional modes perpendicular to the tweezer propagation direction, does not rely on the Lamb-Dicke regime and uses off-resonant light. We reach 1/e1/e1/e cooling times for the center of mass mode of τcom<2τ_{\rm com}<2τcom​<2 ms, and a steady-state excitation number of nˉcom≈0.7\bar{n}_{\rm{com}}\approx 0.7nˉcom​≈0.7. Our scheme is well-suited as an intermediate stage between Doppler cooling and ground-state sideband cooling, and can be readily realized in trapped-ion platforms.
We develop a theory of quantum feedback cooling of a single ion trapped in front of a mirror. By monitoring the motional sidebands of the light emitted into the mirror mode we infer the position of the ion, and act back with an appropriate force to cool the ion. We derive a feedback master equation along the lines of the quantum feedback theory developed by Wiseman and Milburn, which provides us with cooling times and final temperatures as a function of feedback gain and various system parameters.
Trapped ions provide a highly controlled platform for quantum sensors, clocks, simulators, and computers, all of which depend on cooling ions close to their motional ground state. Existing methods like Doppler, resolved sideband, and dark resonance cooling balance trade-offs between the final temperature and cooling rate. A traveling polarization gradient has been shown to cool multiple modes quickly and in parallel, but utilizing a stable polarization gradient can achieve lower ion energies, while also allowing tailorable light-matter interactions in the sub-wavelength regime. In this Letter, we demonstrate cooling of a trapped ion below the Doppler limit using a phase-stable polarization gradient created using trap-integrated photonic devices. At an axial frequency of 2π×1.45 MHz we achieve ⟨n⟩=1.56±0.07 in 150 μs and cooling rates of ∼0.3 quanta/μs. We examine ion dynamics under different polarization gradient phases, detunings, and intensities, showing reasonable agreement between experimental results and a multilevel model. Cooling is fast and power efficient, with lower average motional Fock state occupation when compared to simulated operation under the corresponding running wave configuration. Our results demonstrate a well-controlled test bed for studying the dynamics of multilevel atomic systems in a phase-stable polarization gradient.
Trapped ions are a powerful and flexible platform used for scientific applications ranging from studies of fundamental physics and precision spectroscopy to quantum simulation and quantum information processing. These applications are enabled by the excellent control that can be exerted over the long-lived atomic states of trapped ions using electromagnetic fields. In crystals containing multiple ions, the shared motion is used as a mediator to couple the atomic states of distant ions. This thesis focuses on improving the control over ion motion, and in particular for crystals that contain multiple ion species. The first set of experiments discussed in this thesis is the application of a ground-state cooling method known as electromagnetically-induced-transparency (EIT) cooling to 25Mg+. This ion has a complex hyperfine structure which enables the implementation of a long-lived qubit. By demonstrating EIT cooling on 25Mg+, it is shown that such qubit ions are also compatible with this resource-efficient sub-Doppler cooling method. The normal modes of trapped-ion motion are well-described by quantum harmonic oscillators, and the second set of experiments described in this thesis covers the direct, rapid, and parametric coupling between two harmonic oscillators in the motion modes of multi-ion crystals. This coupling can be used to indirectly cool ion modes that are otherwise difficult or inefficient to cool. It can also be used to perform mid-circuit non-destructive readout of trapped-ion motion, which is useful for the study of states encoded in the ion motion, such as those used for bosonic error correction.