Quantum-limited thermometry of a Fermi gas with a charged spin particle

TL;DR

This paper explores how charged ions can serve as highly sensitive thermometers for Fermi gases, leveraging long-range interactions and ion motional states to enhance temperature measurement precision in quantum systems.

Contribution

It extends previous neutral impurity thermometry to charged ions, analyzing the effects of ion motional states and interaction range on sensitivity, with implications for experimental atom-ion systems.

Findings

Long-range atom-ion interactions improve thermometer sensitivity.

Ion motional state significantly affects temperature sensitivity.

Manipulating ion spatial extension can optimize thermometry performance.

Abstract

We investigate the sensitivity of an ion sensor in determining the temperature of an atomic Fermi gas. Our study extends to charged impurities the proposal by M. T. Mitchison et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 080402 (2020), where atomic neutral impurities were used as an in situ thermometer of the quantum gas. We find that the long-range character of the atom-ion interaction enhances the thermometer's sensitivity for certain system parameters. In addition, we investigate the impact of the ion quantum motional state on the sensitivity by assuming that it is confined in a harmonic trap. We observe that the temperature sensitivity of the ion is noticeably influenced by its spatial extension, making the latter a versatile tool to be manipulated for improving the thermometer performance. We finally discuss our findings in the context of current experimental atom-ion mixtures.