Finite geometry models of electric field noise from patch potentials in ion traps

TL;DR

This paper models electric field noise from patch potentials in ion traps considering finite electrode geometries, revealing how trap shape influences anomalous heating rates and supporting the common d^{-4} scaling with potential deviations.

Contribution

It introduces a finite geometry model for electric field noise in ion traps, providing new insights into how electrode shape affects heating rate scaling and deviations from established trends.

Findings

Supports the d^{-4} scaling law for heating rates.

Shows geometry significantly influences noise scaling.

Predicts deviations from the d^{-4} trend based on electrode shape.

Abstract

We model electric field noise from fluctuating patch potentials on conducting surfaces by taking into account the finite geometry of the ion trap electrodes to gain insight into the origin of anomalous heating in ion traps. The scaling of anomalous heating rates with surface distance, $d$, is obtained for several generic geometries of relevance to current ion trap designs, ranging from planar to spheroidal electrodes. The influence of patch size is studied both by solving Laplace's equation in terms of the appropriate Green's function as well as through an eigenfunction expansion. Scaling with surface distance is found to be highly dependent on the choice of geometry and the relative scale between the spatial extent of the electrode, the ion-electrode distance, and the patch size. Our model generally supports the $d^{-4}$ dependence currently found by most experiments and models, but also predicts geometry-driven deviations from this trend.