Rapid multi-mode trapped-ion laser cooling in a phase-stable standing wave

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates rapid, multi-mode laser cooling of trapped ions using phase-stable standing waves, surpassing conventional limits and enabling faster, more efficient cooling in scalable quantum systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel integrated optical cooling scheme using phase-stable standing waves, achieving ground-state cooling of multiple motional modes in a scalable ion trap system.

Findings

Cooling below the Doppler limit at a standing wave node.

First realization of EIT-based ground-state cooling with standing waves.

Achieved near ground-state phonon occupancy ($ar n ightarrow 0.05$) within 150 μs.

Abstract

Laser cooling is fundamental to quantum computing and metrology using atomic systems. Precise control often requires cooling atoms' motional degrees of freedom to the quantum ground state, imposing operation time and architectural limitations particularly in large-scale systems. Here we demonstrate how the integrated optical control of interest for scaling trapped-ion systems additionally enables laser cooling that bypasses limitations of conventional schemes. Leveraging multi-channel integrated delivery of ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths for calcium ion control including in passively phase-stable ultraviolet standing waves (SWs), we experimentally verify a long-standing prediction by Cirac et al., realizing Doppler cooling to below the conventional Doppler limit at a SW node. We also present the first realization of ground-state cooling via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) using a "probe" beam delivered as a SW with atoms positioned at a node, predicted to enable multi-mode sub-recoil-limit laser cooling. We demonstrate cooling of motional modes spanning an approximately 5 MHz bandwidth from the Doppler temperature to near the ground state within 150 $\mu$s, reaching $\bar n \approx 0.05$ phonon number occupancies for the target mode. Direct evaluation against the comparable running-wave (RW) scheme shows the SW implementation's simultaneous advantage in cooling rate, motional mode bandwidth, and final phonon number, as previously theoretically predicted. Our results demonstrate fast cooling of multiple modes to the quantum ground state in an integrated ion trap device, and more broadly how scalable approaches to optical control can enable enhancements in fundamental atomic functionalities.