Demonstration of integrated microscale optics in surface-electrode ion traps

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a microfabricated surface-electrode ion trap with integrated high-NA micromirrors that enhance fluorescence collection, enabling scalable and efficient ion detection for quantum computing.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable microfabricated ion trap with integrated micromirrors for improved fluorescence collection in quantum information processing.

Findings

Stable trapping and transport of 40Ca+ ions over the micromirror.

Observed a 1.9-fold enhancement in photon collection.

System is scalable to large arrays of mirrors.

Abstract

In ion trap quantum information processing, efficient fluorescence collection is critical for fast, high-fidelity qubit detection and ion-photon entanglement. The expected size of future many-ion processors require scalable light collection systems. We report on the development and testing of a microfabricated surface-electrode ion trap with an integrated high numerical aperture (NA) micromirror for fluorescence collection. When coupled to a low NA lens, the optical system is inherently scalable to large arrays of mirrors in a single device. We demonstrate stable trapping and transport of 40Ca+ ions over a 0.63 NA micromirror and observe a factor of 1.9 enhancement in photon collection compared to the planar region of the trap.