Large 2D Coulomb crystals in a radio frequency surface ion trap

TL;DR

This paper reports the design and operation of a surface ion trap capable of creating large, purely 2D Coulomb crystals of Sr+ ions, facilitating quantum simulation experiments in two dimensions.

Contribution

The authors developed a standard PCB-based surface ion trap that produces large 2D Coulomb crystals, with an analytical model guiding the trap parameters for anisotropic regimes.

Findings

Achieved Coulomb crystals with over 150 ions in 2D

Demonstrated trap operation with a 500 μm ion-substrate distance

Provided an analytical model for trap parameter optimization

Abstract

We designed and operated a surface ion trap, with an ion-substrate distance of 500\mum, realized with standard printed-circuit-board techniques. The trap has been loaded with up to a few thousand Sr+ ions in the Coulomb-crystal regime. An analytical model of the pseudo-potential allowed us to determine the parameters that drive the trap into anisotropic regimes in which we obtain large (N>150) purely 2D ion Coulomb crystals. These crystals may open a simple and reliable way to experiments on quantum simulations of large 2D systems.