Deterministic Ultracold Ion Source targeting the Heisenberg Limit

TL;DR

This paper presents a deterministic ultracold ion source capable of precise ion delivery with minimal fluctuations, aiming to reach the Heisenberg limit for nanometre resolution in quantum and nano device fabrication.

Contribution

The authors developed a segmented ion trap system that produces deterministic single ions with low velocity uncertainty and beam divergence, and demonstrated potential for Heisenberg limit resolution through numerical simulations.

Findings

Achieved a velocity uncertainty of 6.3 m/s

Measured a beam divergence of 0.6 mrad

Simulations indicate nanometre resolution at the Heisenberg limit

Abstract

The major challenges to fabricate quantum processors and future nano solid state devices are material modification techniques with nanometre resolution and suppression of statistical fluctuations of dopants or qubit carriers. Based on a segmented ion trap with mK laser cooled ions we have realized a deterministic single ion source which could operate with a huge range of sympathetically cooled ion species, isotopes or ionic molecules. We have deterministically extracted a predetermined number of ions on demand and have measured a longitudinal velocity uncertainty of 6.3m/s and a spatial beam divergence of 0.6 mrad. We show in numerical simulations that if the ions are cooled to the motional ground state (Heisenberg limit) nanometre spatial resolution can be achieved.