Reduction of heating rate in a microfabricated ion trap by pulsed-laser cleaning

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that pulsed-laser cleaning of ion trap electrodes can significantly reduce electric-field noise and heating rates, offering a new approach to improve ion trap performance without cryogenic cooling.

Contribution

First experimental demonstration of laser cleaning reducing anomalous heating in a microfabricated ion trap, highlighting a novel surface treatment method.

Findings

Electric-field noise spectral density reduced by ~50%

Change observed in frequency dependence of heating

Laser cleaning offers a surface quality control method

Abstract

Laser-cleaning of the electrodes in a planar micro-fabricated ion trap has been attempted using ns pulses from a tripled Nd:YAG laser at 355nm. The effect of the laser pulses at several energy density levels has been tested by measuring the heating rate of a single 40Ca+ trapped ion as a function of its secular frequency. A reduction of the electric-field noise spectral density by ~50% has been observed and a change in the frequency dependence also noticed. This is the first reported experiment where the "anomalous heating" phenomenon has been reduced by removing the source as opposed to reducing its thermal driving by cryogenic cooling. This technique may open the way to better control of the electrode surface quality in ion microtraps.