Entanglement-enhanced detection of single-photon scattering events

The ability to detect the interaction of light and matter at the single-particle level is becoming increasingly important for many areas of science and technology. The absorption or emission of a photon on a narrow transition of a trapped ion can be detected with near unit probability, thereby enabling the realization of ultra-precise ion clocks and quantum information processing applications. Extending this sensitivity to broad transitions is challenging due to the difficulty of detecting the rapid photon scattering events in this case. Here, we demonstrate a technique to detect the scattering of a single photon on a broad optical transition with high sensitivity. Our approach is to use an…

Ultrahigh-Resolution Microwave Spectroscopy on TrappedYb+171Ions

Cryogenic setup for trapped ion quantum computing

We report on the design of a cryogenic setup for trapped ion quantum computing containing a segmented surface electrode trap. The heat shield of our cryostat is designed to attenuate alternating magnetic field noise, resulting in 120~dB reduction of 50~Hz noise along the magnetic field axis. We combine this efficient magnetic shielding with high optical access required for single ion addressing as well as for efficient state detection by placing two lenses each with numerical aperture 0.23 inside the inner heat shield. The cryostat design incorporates vibration isolation to avoid decoherence of optical qubits due to the motion of the cryostat. We measure vibrations of the cryostat of less t…

On the sensitivity of ion traps for spectroscopic applications

Ba+ ions, created by surface ionization near one endcap of an rf quadrupole trap were slowed down by collisions with the background gas. At He pressures of 10−6 mbar or more 2% of the primary ions could be trapped. The sensitivity of ion detection by fluorescence radiation allows spectroscopic experiments, starting from less than 107 particles. The observation of the ground-state hyperfine splitting of137Ba+ is given as an example.

Assessing the progress of trapped-ion processors towards fault-tolerant quantum computation

41 pags., 32 figs., 7 tabs. -- Open Access funded by Creative Commons Atribution Licence 4.0

Precise determination of the171Yb+ ground state Hyperfine separation

We performed a microwave-optical double resonance experiment on the ground state of171Yb+ ions. About 105 particles were confined in a r.f. quadrupole trap for periods of several hours in the presence of He buffer gas. Hyperfine pumping by a pulsed dye laser was followed by microwave transitions, which we observed via changes in the ionic fluorescence intensity. The ground state hyperfine splitting has been determined togD W=12642812124.2±1.4 Hz. The ultimate line width obtained in this experiment was 33 mHz, corresponding to a lineQ of 3.8·1011. The final error ofgD W is mainly determined by the accuracy of the available frequency reference.

PRECISE DETERMINATION OF 135Ba+ AND 137Ba+ HYPERFINE STRUCTURE

Precision determination of the ground-state hyperfine splitting inBa+137using the ion-storage technique

Shot-noise-limited monitoring and phase locking of the motion of a single trapped ion.

We perform a high-resolution real-time readout of the motion of a single trapped and laser-cooled ${\mathrm{Ba}}^{+}$ ion. By using an interferometric setup, we demonstrate a shot-noise-limited measurement of thermal oscillations with a resolution of 4 times the standard quantum limit. We apply the real-time monitoring for phase control of the ion motion through a feedback loop, suppressing the photon recoil-induced phase diffusion. Because of the spectral narrowing in the phase-locked mode, the coherent ion oscillation is measured with a resolution of about 0.3 times the standard quantum limit.