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Integrated-Photonics-Based Devices and Systems for Polarization-Gradient Cooling of Trapped Ions

Sabrina Corsetti, Ethan Clements, Felix Knollmann, Ashton Hattori, Milica Notaros, Reuel B. Swint, Tal Sneh, Patrick T. Callahan, Gavin N. West, Dave Kharas, Thomas Mahony, Colin Bruzewicz, Cheryl M. Sorace-Agaskar, Robert McConnell, Isaac L. Chuang, John Chiaverini, Jelena Notaroš

Published Jan 1, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We design and demonstrate key polarization-diverse integrated-photonics devices and utilize them to implement a variety of integrated-photonics-based polarization-gradient-cooling systems, culminating in the first demonstration of polarization-gradient cooling of a trapped ion by an integrated-photonics-based system.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_si.2025.ss117_1

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Trapped ions are a promising modality for quantum systems, with demonstrated utility as the basis for quantum processors and optical clocks. However, traditional trapped-ion systems are implemented using complex free-space optical configurations, whose large size and susceptibility to vibrations and drift inhibit scaling to large numbers of qubits. In recent years, integrated-photonics-based systems have been demonstrated as an avenue to address the challenge of scaling trapped-ion systems while maintaining high fidelities. While these previous demonstrations have implemented both Doppler and resolved-sideband cooling of trapped ions, these cooling techniques are fundamentally limited in efficiency. In contrast, polarization-gradient cooling can enable faster and more power-efficient cooling and, therefore, improved computational efficiencies in trapped-ion systems. While free-space implementations of polarization-gradient cooling have demonstrated advantages over other cooling mechanisms, polarization-gradient cooling has never previously been implemented using integrated photonics. In this paper, we design and experimentally demonstrate key polarization-diverse integrated-photonics devices and utilize them to implement a variety of integrated-photonics-based polarization-gradient-cooling systems, culminating in the first experimental demonstration of polarization-gradient cooling of a trapped ion by an integrated-photonics-based system. By demonstrating polarization-gradient cooling using an integrated-photonics-based system and, in general, opening up the field of polarization-diverse integrated-photonics-based devices and systems for trapped ions, this work facilitates new capabilities for integrated-photonics-based trapped-ion platforms.
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.
As trapped ion systems add more ions to allow for increasingly sophisticated quantum processing and sensing capabilities, the traditional optical-mechanical laboratory infrastructure that make such systems possible are in some cases the limiting factor in further growth of the systems. One promising solution is to integrate as many, if not all, optical components such as waveguides and gratings, single-photon detectors, and high extinction ratio optical switches/modulators either into ion traps themselves or into auxiliary devices that can be easily integrated with ion traps. Here we report on recent efforts at Sandia National Laboratories to include integrated photonics in our surface ion trap platforms.
Ion traps are a promising platform for the realisation of high-performance quantum computers. To enable the future scalability of these systems, integrated photonic solutions for guiding and manipulating the laser light at chip level are a major step. Such passive optical components offer the great advantage of providing beam radii in the μm range at the location of the ions without increasing the number of bulk optics. Different wavelengths, from UV to NIR, as well as laser beam properties, such as angle or polarisation, are required for different cooling and readout processes of ions. We present simulation results for different optical photonic components, such as grating outcouplers or waveguide splitters and their applications on ion trap chips. Furthermore, we will introduce the experimental setup for the optical characterisation of the fabricated structures.