Monolithic Microfabricated Symmetric Ion Trap for Quantum Information Processing

TL;DR

This paper introduces a monolithic silicon microfabricated ion trap that combines scalability with high trapping performance, enabling long ion chains suitable for quantum simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel monolithic ion trap design with optimized geometry, fabrication process, and control potentials for long, stable ion chains in quantum information processing.

Findings

Trap performance approaches macroscopic structures

Able to confine up to 50 ions with 10 um spacing

Design supports long-lived ion chains for quantum simulations

Abstract

We describe a novel monolithic ion trap that combines the flexibility and scalability of silicon microfabrication technologies with the superior trapping characteristics of traditional four-rod Paul traps. The performace of the proposed microfabricated trap approaches that of the macroscopic structures. The fabrication process creates an angled through-chip slot which allows backside ion loading and through-laser access while avoiding surface light scattering and dielectric charging. The trap geometry and dimensions are optimized for confining long ion chains with equal ion spacing [G.-D. Lin, et al., Europhys. Lett. 86, 60004 (2009)]. Control potentials have been derived to produce linear, equally spaced ion chains of up to 50 ions spaced at 10 um. With the deep trapping depths achievable in this design, we expect that these chains will be sufficiently long-lived to be used in quantum simulations of magnetic systems [E.E. Edwards, et al., Phys. Rev. B 82, 060412(R) (2010)]. The trap is currently being fabricated at Georgia Tech using VLSI techniques.