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Characterizing the AC Zeeman Effect in Microfabricated Surface Traps .

Susan Clark, Megan Ivory, Craig Hogle, Joshua Wilson, Christopher Nordquist, Melissa Revelle

Published Jul 1, 2022• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Microfabricated surface traps have enabled precise control over trapped ions in a compact device with lower power requirements than traditional traps, but have also presented unique challenges due to the small ion-surface distance.One such challenge is AC Zeeman effect which leads to a frequency shift due to the oscillating magnetic field associated with the RF drive.Here, we characterize the frequency shift of the ground state microwave transition of a 171 Yb + ion confined by microfabricated surface traps driven by an RF field.We compare the AC Zeeman effect due to the drive RF and induced RF current in the trap ground planes for various traps fabricated at Sandia National Laboratories.

DOI
10.2172/2004121

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Microfabricated surface traps have enabled precise control over trapped ions in a compact device with lower power requirements than traditional traps, but have also presented unique challenges due to the small ion-surface distance.One such challenge is AC Zeeman effect which leads to a frequency shift due to the oscillating magnetic field associated with the RF drive.Here, we characterize the frequency shift of the ground state microwave transition of a 171 Yb + ion confined by microfabricated surface traps driven by an RF field.We compare the AC Zeeman effect due to the drive RF and induced RF current in the trap ground planes for various traps fabricated at Sandia National Laboratories.
Quantum processors and atomic clocks based on trapped ions often utilize an ion's hyperfine transition as the qubit state or frequency reference, respectively. These states are a good choice because they are insensitive in first order to magnetic field fluctuations, leading to long coherence times and stable frequency splittings. In trapped ions, however, these states are still subject to the second order AC Zeeman effect due to the necessary presence of an oscillating magnetic field used to confine the ions in a Paul trap configuration. Here, we measure the frequency shift of the 2S1/2 hyperfine transition of a 171Yb+ ion caused by the radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field used to create confinement in several microfabricated surface trap designs. By comparing different trap designs, we show that two key design modifications significantly reduce the AC Zeeman effect experienced by the ion: (1) an RF ground layer routed directly below the entire RF electrode, and (2) a symmetric RF electrode. Both of these changes lead to better cancellation of the AC magnetic field and, thus, overall reduced frequency shifts due to the AC Zeeman effect and reduced variation across the device. These improvements enable a more homogeneous environment for quantum computing and can reduce errors for precision applications such as atomic clocks.
The oscillating magnetic field produced by unbalanced currents in radio-frequency ion traps induces transition frequency shifts and sideband transitions that can be harmful to precision spectroscopy experiments. Here, we describe a methodology, based on two-photon spectroscopy, for determining both the strength and direction of rf-induced magnetic fields without modifying any dc magnetic bias field or changing any trap rf power. The technique is readily applicable to any trapped-ion experiment featuring narrow linewidth transitions.
Microfabricated surface ion traps are a principal component of many ion-based quantum information science platforms. The operational parameters of these devices are pushed to the edge of their physical capabilities as the experiments strive for increasing performance. When the applied radio-frequency (RF) voltage is increased excessively, the devices can experience damaging electric discharge events known as RF breakdown. We introduce two novel techniques for in situ detection of RF breakdown, which we implemented while characterizing the breakdown threshold of surface ion traps produced at Sandia National Laboratories. In these traps, breakdown did not always occur immediately after increasing the RF voltage, but often minutes or even hours later. This result is surprising in the context of the suggested mechanisms for RF breakdown in vacuum. Additionally, the extent of visible damage caused by breakdown events increased with the applied voltage. To minimize the probability for damage when RF power is first applied to a device, our results strongly suggest that the voltage should be ramped up over the course of several hours and monitored for breakdown.
Abstract Ensuring robust operation of optical clock systems requires increasingly complex automation of experimental protocols. This includes real-time monitoring of system output for data validation and for high accuracy assessment of systematic frequency shifts. We report here on recent advances in the control system of the 171 Yb+ ion optical clock at NPL (National Physical Laboratory, UK) and describe how this has led to improvements in systematic shift metrology and reduced the overall uncertainty budget for the optical clock. Additionally we present an assessment of the rf trap drive-induced ac Zeeman effect for our experimental system. These system advances enable us to provide improved contributions to the international efforts in the redefinition of the SI second and other applications such as tests of fundamental physics.
Atom chip based interferometry holds signicant promise for embedded precise measurements of time, accelerations, rotations, and magnetic fields. It can enable compact sensors for various carriers like planes, boats, and drones, making it advantageous for navigation applications. When measuring acceleration with a cold atom interferometer, it is necessary to separate the two states during the interferometry sequence. Microwave dressed potentials generated from CPWs within a magnetic trap are one approach to achieve such on-chip manipulation. Two specic challenges arise in this process. First, the microwave field emitted by a waveguide introduces an AC Zeeman shifts, leading to a bias phase in the interferometer output. Precise determination of this bias is necessary for accurate parameter readout. Second, positioning the atom trap accurately between the two waveguides is crucial to obtain the necessary symmetry during separation; otherwise, the contrast of the interferometer is signicantly reduced. To address these challenges, we present a method for measuring AC Zeeman shifts using Ramsey interferometry.
Current classical computing methods are unable to simulate quantum many-body interactions efficiently.Analog quantum simulators with even small numbers of quantum degrees of freedom are expected to enable the investigation of systems not fully accessible in traditional computing such as condensed-matter systems, quantum chemistry, and material science.Two-dimensional lattices of trapped ions are a good candidate to realize an analog quantum simulator for their addressability, individual control and individual detection.Here, we report on multiple unique lattice surface ion trap designs, microfabricated at Sandia National Laboratories, capable of trapping and interacting up to 4 ions.Ions are held in close proximity in individual all radio-frequency potential minima and interact via their Coulomb repulsion.The Coulomb coupling between ions allows for simulation of spin-spin interactions 1-6 .Control electrodes of the trap can be used to adjust principal axes of the ion's motion and thus enable individual control over the interaction between ions.The lattice trap array architecture tested in this work can be scaled to larger two-dimensional lattices of trapped ions.