Cryogenic Penning-Trap Apparatus for Precision Experiments with Sympathetically Cooled (anti)protons

TL;DR

This paper presents a cryogenic Penning-trap setup designed for coupling (anti)protons with laser-cooled ions, enabling sympathetic cooling and quantum logic spectroscopy to improve precision in CPT symmetry tests.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel cryogenic Penning-trap apparatus for coupling (anti)protons with laser-cooled ions, advancing sympathetic cooling techniques for precision experiments.

Findings

Successful trapping and laser cooling of $^9$Be$^+$ ions.

Design prospects for microfabricated traps for single (anti)protons.

Potential for sub-mK temperature cooling on millisecond timescales.

Abstract

Current precision experiments with single (anti)protons to test CPT symmetry progress at a rapid pace, but are complicated by the need to cool particles to sub-thermal energies. We describe a cryogenic Penning-trap setup for $^9$Be$^+$ ions designed to allow coupling of single (anti)protons to laser-cooled atomic ions for sympathetic cooling and quantum logic spectroscopy. We report on trapping and laser cooling of clouds and single $^9$Be$^+$ ions. We discuss prospects for a microfabricated trap to allow coupling of single (anti)protons to laser-cooled $^9$Be$^+$ ions for sympathetic laser cooling to sub-mK temperatures on ms time scales.