Versatile ytterbium ion trap experiment for operation of scalable ion-trap chips with motional heating and transition-frequency measurements

Abstract

We present the design and operation of an ytterbium ion trap experiment with a setup offering versatile optical access and 90 electrical inter-connects that can host advanced surface and multi-layer ion trap chips mounted on chip carriers. We operate a macroscopic ion trap compatible with this chip carrier design and characterise its performance, demonstrating secular frequencies >1 MHz, and trap and cool nearly all of the stable isotopes, including 171Yb+ ions, as well as ion crystals. For this particular tap we measure the motional heating rate, <n-dot>, and observe a <n-dot> proportional to 1/omega^2 behaviour for different secular frequencies, omega. We also determine a spectral noise density S_E(1 MHz) = 3.6(9)x10^-11 V^2 m^-2 Hz^-1 at an ion electrode spacing of 310(10) mu m. We describe the experimental setup for trapping and cooling Yb+ ions and provide frequency measurements of the 2S_1/2 - 2P_1/2 and 2D_3/2 - 3D[3/2]_1/2 transitions for the stable 170Yb+, 171Yb+, 172Yb+, 174Yb+ and 176Yb+ isotopes which are more precise than previously published work.