Demonstration Of Rabi-Flops With Ytterbium 171 Trapped-Ion Qubits

Abstract

This paper presents a proof-of-concept for manipulation of Ytterbium 171 trapped-ion qubits through the Rabiflops experiment. This serves as a partial report on an ongoing project aimed at developing a fully operational ion trapping and quantum feedback control laboratory at Stellenbosch University. Despite the bad vacuum conditions during the Rabi-flops experiment, we were able to manipulate the trapped Ytterbium 171 ion qubits with microwave pulses to give out a clear indication of Rabi oscillations. A high rate of ion loss led to the Rabi oscillations profile showing a decay feature within it. This decay feature was modeled and characterized, hence showing that we were losing ions at the rate defined by a time constant of 𝜏 = 4500 −1 seconds.