Optical Trapping of Magnesium Ions and Rydberg Atoms to Simulate Quantum Spin Models

Oliver Wipfli, Christoph Fischer, Matt Grau, Jonathan P. Home
Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Quantum simulation with trapped ions provides possibilities to investigate the many-body physics of two-dimensional interacting spin systems in a controlled manner with full access to microscopic variables. Attempts to realize user-defined two-dimensional geometries with patterned surface-electrode traps have suffered from anomalous heating of the ion motional state due to proximity to the electrode surfaces. We propose to avoid this problem by trapping ions in a strong light field far from any surfaces. Initial experiments will use circulating optical power of 10 kW in a cavity with a finesse of 10'000, which calculations indicate will allow us to store up to 40 ions arranged in a two-dimensional Coulomb crystal in a single well of the optical standing wave. A complementary approach to quantum simulation with ions is to use the trapped the ionic core of a two-electron Rydberg atom, with the Rydberg electron encoding a spin. I will present the status of the optical trapping experiment as well as recent studies of high principal quantum number Rydberg states of neutral Magnesium.