DOE OSTI · 2425574
Ablation loading of barium ions into a surface-electrode trap
Abstract
Trapped-ion quantum information processing may benefit from qubits encoded in isotopes that are practically available in only small quantities, e.g., due to low natural abundance or radioactivity. Laser ablation provides a method of controllably liberating neutral atoms or ions from low-volume targets, but energetic ablation products can be difficult to confine in the small ion-electrode distance, micron-scale microfabricated traps amenable to high-speed, high-fidelity manipulation of ion arrays. Here, we investigate ablation-based ion loading into surface-electrode traps of different sizes to test a model describing ion loading probability as a function of effective trap volume and other trap parameters. We characterize loading of ablated barium from a metallic source in two cryogenic surface-electrode traps with 730 and 50 μm ion-electrode distances. Furthermore, our loading rate agrees with a predictive analytical model, providing insight for the confinement of limited-quantity species of interest for quantum computing, simulation, and sensing.
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Shi, X., Todaro, S. L., Mintzer, G. L., Bruzewicz, C. D., Chiaverini, J., Chuang, I. L.. 2023-06-27. Ablation loading of barium ions into a surface-electrode trap. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0149778
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