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arXiv:quant-ph/0507074 · Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Broadband laser cooling of trapped atoms with ultrafast pulses

B. B. Blinov, R. N. Kohn, M. J. Madsen, Peter Maunz, David L. Moehring, Christopher R. Monroe

Published Jun 1, 2006• 30 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We demonstrate broadband laser cooling of atomic ions in an rf trap using ultrafast pulses from a mode-locked laser. The temperature of a single ion is measured by observing the size of a time-averaged image of the ion in the known harmonic trap potential. Although the lowest observed temperature was only about 1K, this method efficiently cools very hot atoms and can sufficiently localize trapped atoms to produce near diffraction-limited atomic images.

DOI
10.1364/josab.23.001170

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We demonstrate broadband laser cooling of atomic ions in an rf trap using ultrafast pulses from a mode-locked laser. The temperature of a single ion is measured by observing the size of a time-averaged image of the ion in the known harmonic trap potential. Although the lowest observed temperature was only about 1K, this method efficiently cools very hot atoms and can sufficiently localize trapped atoms to produce near diffraction-limited atomic images.
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Trapped atomic ions are a multifaceted platform that can serve as a quantum information processor, precision measurement tool and sensor. However, in order to perform these experiments, the trapped ions need to be cooled substantially below room temperature. Doppler cooling has been a tremendous work horse in the ion trapping community. Hydrogen-like ions are good candidates because they have typically have a simple closed cycling transition that requires only a few lasers to Doppler cool. The \\textsuperscript{2}S to \\textsuperscript{2}P transition for these ions however typically lies in the UV to deep UV regime which makes buying a standard CW laser difficult as optical power here is hard to come by. Rather using a CW laser, which requires frequency stabilization and produces low optical power, this thesis explores how a mode-locked laser in the comb regime Doppler cools Yb ions. This thesis explores how a mode-locked laser is able to laser cool trapped ions and the consequences of using a broad spectrum light source. I will first give an overview of the architecture of our oblate Paul trap. Then I will discuss how a 10 picosecond optical pulse with a repetition rate of 80 MHz interacts with a 20 MHz linewidth \\textsuperscript{2}S\\(_{1/2}\\) to \\textsuperscript{2}P\\(_{1/2}\\) transition. Next I will go over our experiment involving ultrafast Ramsey experiment between the \\textsuperscript{2}S\\(_{1/2}\\) and \\textsuperscript{2}P\\(_{1/2}\\) states. Finally, I will present the results of these experiments.
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.
Laser cooling of a single trapped ion in a Paul trap is discussed theoretically in the Lamb-Dicke limit, with full consideration of the time dependence of the trapping potential. Resulting mean kinetic energies are defined as time averages over one period of the micromotion and are compared with final temperatures expected from the laser-cooling treatment with harmonic traps. For laser-atom detunings close to the micromotion frequency the results differ significantly from those expected for a harmonic trap potential. A physical interpretation is given and simple formulas are derived for the strong confinement case.
We present experimental results on adiabatic cooling of a single 40Ca+ ion in a linear radiofrequency trap. After a period of laser cooling, the secular frequency along the rf-field-free axis is adiabatically lowered by nearly a factor of eight from 583 kHz to 75 kHz. For an ion originally Doppler laser cooled to a temperature of 0.65 +/- 0.03 mK, a temperature of 87 +/- 7 μK is measured after the adiabatic expansion. Applying the same adiabatic cooling procedure to a single sideband cooled ion in the ground state (P0 = 0.978 +/- 0.002) resulted in a final ground state occupation of 0.947 +/- 0.005. Both results are in excellent agreement with an essentially fully adiabatic behavior. The results have a wide range of perspectives within such diverse fields as ion based quantum information science, high resolution molecular ion spectroscopy and ion chemistry at ultra-low temperatures.
A microfabricated phase Fresnel lens was used to image ytterbium ions trapped in a radio frequency Paul trap. The ions were laser cooled close to the Doppler limit on the 369.5 nm transition, reducing the ion motion so that each ion formed a near point source. By detecting the ion fluorescence on the same transition, near-diffraction-limited imaging with spot sizes of below 440 nm (FWHM) was achieved. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of wavelength-scale imaging of trapped ions and the highest imaging resolution ever achieved with atoms in free space.