Abstract
We present a novel system where an optical cavity is integrated with a microfabricated planar-electrode ion trap. The trap electrodes produce a tunable periodic potential allowing the trapping of up to 50 separate ion chains aligned with the cavity and spaced by 160 μm in a one-dimensional array along the cavity axis. Each chain can contain up to 20 individually addressable Yb+ ions coupled to the cavity mode. We demonstrate deterministic distribution of ions between the sites of the electrostatic periodic potential and control of the ion–cavity coupling. The measured strength of this coupling should allow access to the strong collective coupling regime with ≲10 ions. The optical cavity could serve as a quantum information bus between ions or be used to generate a strong wavelength-scale periodic optical potential.
Highlights
A high-finesse cavity coupled to the weak leg of the Raman S–P–D transition in a Ca+ ion has enabled motional-sideband-resolved Raman spectroscopy [33, 34] and efficient single photon generation [34,35,36]
Strong collective coupling between a cavity and separate ensembles of neutral atoms in the cavity has been used to entangle these ensembles via the cavity mode [39]
Single-ion addressability, motional mode control and ground-state cooling are all difficult to achieve in 3D Coulomb crystals, one of the challenges being strong trapdriven radio-frequency micromotion. These problems can be avoided in one-dimensional (1D) ion chains, which would yield a more promising system when coupled to an optical cavity
Summary
The centerpiece of the experimental set-up is a planar-electrode linear Paul trap placed between the mirrors of a 22 mm-long optical cavity. A split central electrode with a periodic structure, shown, allows the long trap to be sectioned into 50 separate trapping sites along the cavity mode, spaced by 160 μm, by applying a negative DC voltage to the inner periodic electrode and a positive DC voltage to the outer periodic electrodes. Addressing the coldest direction (perpendicular to the flux) of the atomic beam with the 399 nm light minimizes Doppler broadening and resolves the different Yb isotopes of interest, which are spaced by at least 2π × 250 MHz in frequency This allows us to achieve isotopic purity of our ion samples in excess of 90% (see figure 2(b)). The remaining undesired isotopes can be pushed to one side by radiation pressure prior to crystallization, and after crystallization into a chain, they can be separated using the crystal splitting method discussed
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