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arXiv:physics/0702025 · Physical Review A

Bright source of cold ions for surface-electrode traps

Marko Cetina, Andrew T. Grier, Jonathan Campbell, Isaac L. Chuang, Vladan Vuletić

Published Oct 24, 2007• 52 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We produce large numbers of low-energy ions by photoionization of laser-cooled atoms inside a surface-electrode-based Paul trap. The isotope-selective trap's loading rate of $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ions}∕\mathrm{s}$ exceeds that attained by photoionization (electron-impact ionization) of an atomic beam by three (six) orders of magnitude. Traps as shallow as $0.13\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$ are easily loaded with this technique. The ions are confined in the same spatial region as the laser-cooled atoms, which will allow the experimental investigation of interactions between cold ions and cold atoms or Bose-Einstein condensates.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.76.041401

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arXiv:0706.3374•Physical Review A•Nov 8, 2007•61 citations
We produce large numbers of low-energy ions by photoionization of laser-cooled atoms inside a surface-electrode-based Paul trap. The isotope-selective trap's loading rate of 4\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi105Yb+ions∕s4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ions}∕\mathrm{s}4\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi105Yb+ions∕s exceeds that attained by photoionization (electron-impact ionization) of an atomic beam by three (six) orders of magnitude. Traps as shallow as 0.13eV0.13\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}0.13eV are easily loaded with this technique. The ions are confined in the same spatial region as the laser-cooled atoms, which will allow the experimental investigation of interactions between cold ions and cold atoms or Bose-Einstein condensates.
We demonstrate loading of ions into a surface-electrode trap (SET) from a remote, laser-cooled source of neutral atoms. We first cool and load $\ensuremath{\sim}$106{10}^{6}106 neutral 88{}^{88}88Sr atoms into a magneto-optical trap from an oven that has no line of sight with the SET. The cold atoms are then pushed with a resonant laser into the trap region where they are subsequently photoionized and trapped in an SET operated at a cryogenic temperature of 4.6 K. We present studies of the loading process and show that our technique achieves ion loading into a shallow (15 meV depth) trap at rates as high as 125 ions/s while drastically reducing the amount of metal deposition on the trap surface as compared with direct loading from a hot vapor. Furthermore, we note that due to multiple stages of isotopic filtering in our loading process, this technique has the potential for enhanced isotopic selectivity over other loading methods. Rapid loading from a clean, isotopically pure, and precooled source may enable scalable quantum-information processing with trapped ions in large, low-depth surface-trap arrays that are not amenable to loading from a hot atomic beam.
Physics We conducted an experiment to load a shallow planar ion trap from a cold atom source of Ytterbium using photoionization. The surface trap consisted of a three-rod radio frequency Paul trap fabricated using standard printed circuit board techniques. The cold atom source was an isotope-selective magneto-optical trap of naturally-occurring Yb isotopes. The confining beams were provided by commercially-available ultra-violet diode lasers locked to an atomic reference using the Dichroic Atomic Vapor Laser Lock technique. We used photoionization from the Yb magneto-optical trap located within the region of the ion trapping potential.
We present studies of resonance-enhanced photoionization for isotope-selective loading of Ca+{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}Ca+ into a Paul trap. The ${4s}^{2}{}^{1}{S}_{0}\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}4s4p{}^{1}{P}_{1}$ transition of neutral calcium is driven by a 423 nm laser and the atoms are photoionized by a second laser at 389 nm. Isotope selectivity is achieved by using crossed atomic and laser beams to reduce the Doppler width significantly below the isotope shifts in the 423 nm transition. The loading rate of ions into the trap is studied under a range of experimental parameters for the abundant isotope 40Ca+.{}^{40}{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}.40Ca+. Using the fluorescence of the atomic beam at 423 nm as a measure of the Ca number density, we estimate a lower limit for the absolute photoionization cross section of 170(60) Mb. We achieve loading and laser cooling of all the naturally occurring isotopes, without the need for enriched sources. Laser heating/cooling is observed to enhance the isotope selectivity. In the case of the rare species 43Ca+{}^{43}{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}43Ca+ and 46Ca+,{}^{46}{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+},46Ca+, which have not previously been laser cooled, the loading is not fully isotope selective, but we show that pure crystals of 43Ca+{}^{43}{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}43Ca+ may nevertheless be obtained. We find that for loading 40Ca+{}^{40}{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}40Ca+ the 389 nm laser may be replaced by an incoherent source.
Atomic cadmium ions are loaded into radiofrequency ion traps by photoionization of atoms in a cadmium vapor with ultrafast laser pulses. The photoionization is driven through an intermediate atomic resonance with a frequency-quadrupled mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser that produces pulses of either $100\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{fs}$ or $1\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{ps}$ duration at a central wavelength of 229nm229\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}229nm. The large bandwidth of the pulses photoionizes all velocity classes of the Cd vapor, resulting in a high loading efficiency compared to previous ion trap loading techniques. Measured loading rates are compared with a simple theoretical model, and we conclude that this technique can potentially ionize every atom traversing the laser beam within the trapping volume. This may allow the operation of ion traps with lower levels of background pressures and less trap electrode surface contamination. The technique and laser system reported here should be applicable to loading most laser-cooled ion species.
We demonstrate loading of 88Sr+^{88}\mathrm{Sr}^{+}88Sr+ ions by laser ablation into a mm-scale surface-electrode ion trap. The laser used for ablation is a pulsed, frequency-tripled Nd:YAG with pulse energies of 1−−10mJ1--10\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mJ}1−−10mJ and durations of 4ns4\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ns}4ns. An additional laser is not required to photoionize the ablated material. The efficiency and lifetime of several candidate materials for the laser ablation target are characterized by measuring the trapped ion fluorescence signal for a number of consecutive loads. Additionally, laser ablation is used to load traps with a trap depth (40meV)(40\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{meV})(40meV) below where electron impact ionization loading is typically successful $(\ensuremath{\gtrsim}500\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{meV})$.