Investigations of 2D ion crystals in a hybrid optical cavity trap for quantum information processing

TL;DR

This paper explores a hybrid optical and electrostatic trapping method for 2D ion crystals, analyzing their stability, configurations, and potential for quantum simulation and information processing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid trapping architecture for 2D ion crystals, analyzing stability, configurations, and lifetime limitations relevant for quantum computing.

Findings

Stable 2D ion crystal configurations identified.

Potential barriers between configurations estimated.

Trapping lifetime limited by scattering to anti-trapping states.

Abstract

We numerically investigate a hybrid trapping architecture for 2D ion crystals using static electrode voltages and optical cavity fields for in-plane and out-of-plane confinements, respectively. By studying the stability of 2D crystals against 2D-3D structural phase transitions, we identify the necessary trapping parameters for ytterbium ions. Multiple equilibrium configurations for 2D crystals are possible, and we analyze their stability by estimating potential barriers between them. We find that scattering to anti-trapping states limits the trapping lifetime, which is consistent with recent experiments employing other optical trapping architectures. These 2D ion crystals offer an excellent platform for quantum simulation of frustrated spin systems, benefiting from their 2D triangular lattice structure and phonon-mediated spin-spin interactions. Quantum information processing with tens of ions is feasible in this scheme with current technologies.