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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 39: Quantum Information: Atoms and Ions III

Q 39.1: Gruppenbericht

Mittwoch, 10. März 2010, 16:30–17:00, E 214

Optical trapping of an ion — •Christian Schneider, Martin Enderlein, Thomas Huber, Stephan Duewel, Robert Matjeschk, Hector Schmitz, and Tobias Schaetz — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik

After more than 50 years of successfully trapping ions in Paul traps and more than 20 years of confining atoms in optical dipole traps followed by optical lattices, we were able to do the first step to merge these fields by trapping an ion optically. We initialize the system via trapping and laser cooling the ion in our linear Paul trap setup, switch on the optical dipole trap and switch completely off the Paul trap. After a waiting time the Paul trap is switched on and the optical dipole trap switched off again. We check for the presence of the ion via fluorescence. With experimentally measured survival durations (lifetimes) of single ions of the order of milliseconds, the lifetime is limited by optical heating processes of the dipole trap.

In the near future, we aim to realize cooling to increase the life time and to investigate the limitations on the coherence times. Loading two ions and/or one ion and atoms into the identical one-dimensional optical lattice could be explored soon. This approach demonstrates not only the feasibility of optically trapping ions, but also hybrid systems of Paul and optical traps, providing long range interaction, individual addressability and a potentially intriguing interplay between neutral and charged particles.