Laser cooling of trapped ions

Abstract

Trapped and laser-cooled ions are increasingly used for a variety of modern high-precision experiments, for frequency standard applications, and for quantum information processing. Therefore laser cooling of trapped ions is reviewed, the current state of the art is reported, and several new cooling techniques are outlined. The principles of ion trapping and the basic concepts of laser cooling for trapped atoms are introduced. The underlying physical mechanisms are presented, and basic experiments are briefly sketched. Particular attention is paid to recent progress by elucidating several milestone experiments. In addition, a number of special cooling techniques pertaining to trapped ions are reviewed; open questions and future research lines are indicated.

Optimization of segmented linear Paul traps and transport of stored particles

“…Nevertheless, the axial frequencies ω ax /2π should exceed a few MHz. Then, cooling techniques are simpler [32], gate operations may be driven faster, and a faster 3 Electric potential of the two-layer microstructure trap in radial direction (yz cross section). Ions are confined by a pseudopotential on the x-axis.…”

Electromagnetically-induced-transparency control of single-atom motion in an optical cavity

“…Ground-state cooling of trapped atoms usually makes use of a narrow resonance, which allows one to selectively address transitions where scattering induces the loss of a quantum of vibration [12]. Such resonances can be realized by choosing a suitable dipolar transition, as in sideband cooling.…”

An Approach To “Quantumness” In Coherent Control

“…The challenge is to find settingsK + ,f 1c , andf 2c so that T 1 and T 2 satisfy Eqs. (138) and (139), independent of the values of the radial integrals D 1 and D 2 that depend on the energy E(K) and on the particular alkali atom used. We adopt a similar approximation as above for the open configuration.…”