Influence of monolayer contamination on electric-field-noise heating in ion traps

TL;DR

This paper investigates how surface monolayer contamination influences electric-field noise in ion traps, revealing that such contamination can significantly alter noise levels and heating rates, impacting quantum computer development.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis of how atomic monolayers affect adsorbate-induced noise, offering insights into surface contamination effects on ion trap heating.

Findings

Monolayer contamination can significantly modify noise spectra.

Additional monolayers can either increase or decrease heating rates.

Surface chemistry influences electric-field noise in ion traps.

Abstract

Electric field noise is a hinderance to the assembly of large scale quantum computers based on entangled trapped ions. Apart from ubiquitous technical noise sources, experimental studies of trapped ion heating have revealed additional limiting contributions to this noise, originating from atomic processes on the electrode surfaces. In a recent work [A. Safavi-Naini et al., Phys. Rev. A 84, 023412 (2011)] we described a microscopic model for this excess electric field noise, which points a way towards a more systematic understanding of surface adsorbates as progenitors of electric field jitter noise. Here, we address the impact of surface monolayer contamination on adsorbate induced noise processes. By using exact numerical calculations for H and N atomic monolayers on an Au(111) surface representing opposite extremes of physisorption and chemisorption, we show that an additional monolayer can significantly affect the noise power spectrum and either enhance or suppress the resulting heating rates.