Transport of ions in a segmented linear Paul trap in printed-circuit-board technology

TL;DR

This paper reports on the development of a segmented linear Paul trap made with printed-circuit-board technology, demonstrating reliable ion trapping, high-precision measurements, and fast ion transport with minimal motional excitation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel printed-circuit-board based segmented Paul trap, validating its effectiveness for ion trapping and fast transport with high success rates and low motional excitation.

Findings

Successful trapping of Ca-40 ions with high accuracy

Achieved 99% success rate in ion transport over 2mm in 20us

Observed minimal motional excitation during fast ion shuttling

Abstract

We describe the construction and operation of a segmented linear Paul trap, fabricated in printed-circuit-board technology with an electrode segment width of 500 microns. We prove the applicability of this technology to reliable ion trapping and report the observation of Doppler cooled ion crystals of Ca-40 with this kind of traps. Measured trap frequencies agree with numerical simulations at the level of a few percent from which we infer a high fabrication accuracy of the segmented trap. To demonstrate its usefulness and versatility for trapped ion experiments we study the fast transport of a single ion. Our experimental results show a success rate of 99.0(1)% for a transport distance of 2x2mm in a round-trip time of T=20us, which corresponds to 4 axial oscillations only. We theoretically and experimentally investigate the excitation of oscillations caused by fast ion transports with error-function voltage ramps: For a slightly slower transport (a round-trip shuttle within T=30us) we observe non-adiabatic motional excitation of 0.89(15)meV.