Structural defects in ion crystals by quenching the external potential: the inhomogeneous Kibble-Zurek mechanism

Abstract

The non-equilibrium dynamics of an ion chain in a highly anisotropic trap is studied when the transverse trap frequency is quenched across the value at which the chain undergoes a continuous phase transition from a linear to a zigzag structure. Within Landau theory, an equation for the order parameter, corresponding to the transverse size of the zigzag structure, is determined when the vibrational motion is damped via laser cooling. The number of structural defects produced during a linear quench of the transverse trapping frequency is predicted and verified numerically. It is shown to obey the scaling predicted by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, when extended to take into account the spatial inhomogeneities of the ion chain in a linear Paul trap.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Universal adiabatic dynamics across a quantum critical point
• Structural phase transitions in low-dimensional ion crystals
• Double wells, scalar fields and quantum phase transitions in ions traps

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Quantum zigzag transition in ion chains
• Spontaneous nucleation of structural defects in inhomogeneous ion chains
• Quantum structural phase transition in chains of interacting atoms
• Many-Body Physics with Trapped Ions
• Quantum compacton vacuum
• Fluxoid formation: size effects and non-equilibrium universality