Fast separation of two trapped ions

TL;DR

This paper presents rapid protocols for separating and recombining two trapped ions using inverse engineering of the trapping potential, achieving microsecond times without residual excitation, surpassing previous experimental speeds.

Contribution

It introduces a novel inverse engineering approach utilizing dynamical invariants for fast ion separation and recombination in segmented traps, including anharmonicity considerations.

Findings

Processes performed in a few microseconds

No residual excitation after separation or recombination

Enhanced stability against potential biases

Abstract

We design fast protocols to separate or recombine two ions in a segmented Paul trap. By inverse engineering the time evolution of the trapping potential composed of a harmonic and a quartic term, it is possible to perform these processes in a few microseconds without final excitation. These times are much shorter than the ones reported so far experimentally. The design is based on dynamical invariants and dynamical normal modes. Anharmonicities beyond the harmonic approximation at potential minima are taken into account perturbatively. The stability versus an unknown potential bias is also studied.