Large ion Coulomb crystals: a near-ideal medium for coupling optical cavity modes to matter

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that large ion Coulomb crystals can coherently couple to multiple optical cavity modes with identical strength, making them promising for high-fidelity multi-mode quantum information processing.

Contribution

It provides experimental validation that Coulomb crystals can serve as near-ideal media for multi-mode quantum information applications, aligning with theoretical models.

Findings

Identical collective coupling rates for different transverse modes

Excellent agreement between experiment and theory

Potential for high-fidelity multi-mode quantum information processing

Abstract

We present an investigation of the coherent coupling of various transverse field modes of an optical cavity to ion Coulomb crystals. The obtained experimental results, which include the demonstration of identical collective coupling rates for different transverse modes of a cavity field to ions in the same large Coulomb crystal, are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. The results furthermore suggest that Coulomb crystals in the future may serve as near-ideal media for highfidelity multi-mode quantum information processing and communication purposes, including the generation and storage of single photon qubits encoded in different transverse modes.