Addressing single trapped ions for Rydberg quantum logic

Abstract

We demonstrate the excitation of ions to the Rydberg state by vacuum ultraviolet radiation at a wavelength of 123 nm combined with the coherent manipulation of the optical qubit transition in . With a tightly focused beam at 729 nm wavelength we coherently excite a single ion from a linear string into the metastable state before a VUV pulse excites it to the Rydberg state. In combination with ion shuttling in the trap, we extend this approach to the addressed excitation of multiple ions. The coherent initialization as well as the addressed Rydberg excitation are key prerequisites for more complex applications of Rydberg ions in quantum simulation or quantum information processing.