Low-Excitation Vertical Ion Shuttling in Scalable Multi-Rail Ion Trap Architectures

TL;DR

This paper explores optimized vertical ion-shuttling protocols in multi-rail ion traps, demonstrating low motional excitation suitable for quantum sensing and scalable quantum computing.

Contribution

It introduces protocols that minimize motional energy gain during vertical ion transport, considering realistic heating rates and shuttling durations.

Findings

Motional excitation can be kept below eight quanta within 500 microseconds.

Anomalous heating dominates only for shuttling durations over 500 microseconds.

Vertical displacement to 86 micrometers is feasible with low motional excitation.

Abstract

We investigate optimized vertical ion-shuttling protocols for trapped-ion applications across a range of ion-trap experiments, including three-dimensional gradient-measurement sensors, on-chip ion fluorescence collection and imaging, improved laser accessibility, and quantum information processing. In this work, we focus on minimizing motional energy gain during ion transport. Our findings indicate that anomalous heating becomes the dominant limiting factor only for shuttling durations exceeding \SI{500}{\micro\second}, whereas the final motional excitation is strongly dependent on the selected shuttling protocol. Using a recently measured heating rate of $(3.1 \pm 0.35)$ quanta\,ms$^{-1}$ at an ion--surface separation of $134 \pm 1.5\,\si{\micro\meter}$, we demonstrate that the motional excitation can be restricted to fewer than eight quanta when the ion is vertically displaced to \SI{86}{\micro\meter} from its initial position at \SI{134}{\micro\meter} within \SI{500}{\micro\second}. These results establish the feasibility of near-adiabatic vertical ion shuttling compatible with the operational requirements of high-fidelity quantum sensing and scalable quantum information processing applications.