Electric field compensation and sensing with a single ion in a planar trap

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of a single ion in a planar trap as a precise electric field sensor, achieving compensation of stray fields and long-term stability in measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a method for electric field compensation and characterization using a single ion in a planar RF trap, with insights into stray charge buildup and stability over months.

Findings

Achieved electric field sensing accuracy of a few V/m.

Identified stray charge buildup causing fields up to 1.3 kV/m.

Demonstrated long-term stability of stray field profiles.

Abstract

We use a single ion as an movable electric field sensor with accuracies on the order of a few V/m. For this, we compensate undesired static electric fields in a planar RF trap and characterize the static fields over an extended region along the trap axis. We observe a strong buildup of stray charges around the loading region on the trap resulting in an electric field of up to 1.3 kV/m at the ion position. We also find that the profile of the stray field remains constant over a time span of a few months.