Compact Toroidal Ion Trap Design and Optimization

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel compact toroidal ion trap design optimized via Monte Carlo simulations, with potential applications in quantum information, mass spectrometry, and Coulomb crystal studies, including phase transition analysis.

Contribution

It presents a new scalable toroidal ion trap design with optimized parameters and analyzes Coulomb crystal phase transitions within this geometry.

Findings

Optimized trap design reduces anharmonicity.

Control over ion placement in 3D is achieved.

First analysis of Coulomb crystal phase transition in this geometry.

Abstract

We present the design of a new type of compact toroidal, or "halo", ion trap. Such traps may be useful for mass spectrometry, studying small Coulomb cluster rings, quantum information applications, or other quantum simulations where a ring topology is of interest. We present results from a Monte Carlo optimization of the trap design parameters using finite-element analysis simulations that minimizes higher-order anharmonic terms in the trapping pseudopotential, while maintaining complete control over ion placement at the pseudopotential node in 3D using static bias fields. These simulations are based on a practical electrode design using readily-available parts, yet can be easily scaled to any size trap with similar electrode spacings. We also derive the conditions for a crystal phase transition for two ions in the compact halo trap, the first non-trivial phase transition for Coulomb crystals in this geometry.