Production of Fock Mixtures in Trapped Ions for Motional Metrology

TL;DR

This paper introduces a protocol for generating non-thermal Fock state mixtures in trapped ions, which enhances measurement precision without requiring full cooling or Fock-state preparation.

Contribution

The authors propose a novel cyclic protocol using red-sideband pulses and measurements to produce metrologically advantageous Fock mixtures in trapped ions.

Findings

States outperform the ground state in metrological tasks

Protocol can be reliably implemented within specific parameter regimes

Numerical simulations confirm the feasibility of state generation

Abstract

We present a protocol to produce a class of non-thermal Fock state mixtures in trapped ions. This class of states features a clear metrological advantage with respect to the ground state, thus overcoming the standard quantum limit without the need for full sideband cooling and Fock-state preparation on a narrow electronic transition. The protocol consists in the cyclic repetition of red-sideband, measurement and preparation laser pulses. By means of the Kraus map representation of the protocol, it is possible to relate the length of the red sideband pulses to the specific class of states that can be generated. With the help of numerical simulations, we analyze the parametric regime where these states can be reliably reproduced.