Recent experiments with ions in microfabricated surface-electrode traps

Yves Colombe, Ulrich Warring, Christian Ospelkaus (1), Kenton R. Brown (2), Andrew C. Wilson, Dustin A. Hite, Robert Jördens, John D. Jost, Kyle S. McKay, David P. Pappas, Dietrich Leibfried, David W. Wineland

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, USA
(1) now at Leibniz Universität Hannover and PTB, Braunschweig, Germany
(2) now at Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

We report on recent progress made at NIST Boulder in the manipulation of ions using microfabricated surface-electrode traps. A first experiment performs a laser-less two qubit logic gate, taking advantage of the high magnetic field gradients that can be generated on ion chips [1]. A second experiment, operated at cryogenic temperature, shows the exchange of a single quantum of vibration between two ions trapped 40 micrometers apart [2]. Lastly, we describe an experiment where the anomalous motional heating rate of a trapped ion is reduced by a factor of 100 after in-situ cleaning of the surface of the trap [3].

[1] C. Ospelkaus et al., Nature 476, 181 (2011)
[2] K.R. Brown et al., Nature 471, 196 (2011)
[3] D.A. Hite et al., arXiv:1112.5419 (2011)