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International Optical Design Conference

Miniaturized UV Fluorescence Collection Optics Integrated with Ion Trap Chips

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

Published Jan 1, 2010• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

For practical quantum computing, it will be necessary to detect the fluorescence from many trapped ions. We describe a design and integration approach using microoptics to couple this fluorescence into an array of optical fibers.
DOI
10.1364/iodc.2010.jmb24

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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.
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.
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.
We have realized a compact system to efficiently couple the fluorescent light emitted by a single trapped ion to two opposing optical fibers. The fibers are tightly integrated in the center electrodes of a miniature endcap trap. They capture light from the ion with a numerical aperture of 0.34 each, corresponding to 6% of the solid angle in total. The high collection efficiency and high signal-to-background ratio make the setup an ideal quantum light source. We have observed strong antibunching of the photons emitted from the two fibers. The system has a range of applications from single-ion state detection in quantum information processing to strong coupling cavity-QED with ions.
Abstract Trapped ions are a promising platform for the deployment of quantum technologies. However, traditional ion trap experiments tend to be bulky and environment-sensitive due to the use of free-space optics. Here we present a single-ion trap with integrated optical fibers directly embedded within the trap structure, to deliver laser light as well as to collect the ion’s fluorescence. This eliminates the need for optical windows. We characterise the system’s performance and measure the ion’s fluorescence with signal-to-background ratios on the order of 50, which allows us to perform internal state readout measurements with a fidelity over 99% in 600 $$\upmu$$ μ s. We test the system’s resilience to thermal variations in the range between 22 and 53 ∘^{\circ }∘ ∘ C, and the system’s vibration resilience at 34 Hz and 300 Hz and find no effect on its performance. The combination of compactness and robustness of our fiber-coupled trap makes it well suited for applications in, as well as outside, research laboratory environments, and in particular for highly compact portable quantum technologies, such as portable optical atomic clocks. While our system is designed for trapping 40Ca+ ions the fundamental design principles can be applied to other ion species.