Rydberg excitation of trapped cold ions: A detailed case study

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive theoretical analysis of exciting Rydberg states in trapped cold ions, aiming to leverage strong interactions for quantum computing and simulation, while addressing potential challenges.

Contribution

It offers a detailed conceptual framework for Rydberg excitation in trapped ions and discusses the feasibility and challenges of implementing quantum protocols with this approach.

Findings

Potential for high-fidelity quantum gates using Rydberg ions

Enhanced control over ion interactions via Rydberg states

Identification of key experimental challenges

Abstract

We provide a detailed theoretical and conceptual study of a planned experiment to excite Rydberg states of ions trapped in a Paul trap. The ultimate goal is to exploit the strong state dependent interactions between Rydberg ions to implement quantum information processing protocols and to simulate the dynamics of strongly interacting spin systems. We highlight the promises of this approach when combining the high degree of control and readout of quantum states in trapped ion crystals with the novel and fast gate schemes based on interacting giant Rydberg atomic dipole moments. We discuss anticipated theoretical and experimental challenges on the way towards its realization.