A far-off-resonance optical trap for a Ba${}^{+}$ ion

Abstract

Optical trapping and ions combine unique advantages of independently striving fields of research. Light fields can form versatile potential landscapes, such as optical lattices, for neutral and charged atoms, avoiding detrimental implications of established radiofrequency (rf) traps while mediating interaction via long range Coulomb forces, controlling and detecting motional and electronic states on the quantum level. Here we show optical trapping of ${}^{138}$Ba${}^{+}$ ions in the absence of rf fields in a far-detuned dipole trap, suppressing photon scattering by three and the related recoil heating by four orders of magnitude. To enhance the prospects for optical as well as hybrid traps, we demonstrate a novel method for stray electric field compensation to a level below 9 mV/m. Our results will be relevant, for example, for ion-atom ensembles, to enable four to five orders of magnitude lower common temperatures, accessing the regime of ultracold interaction and chemistry, where quantum effects are predicted to dominate.

18 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (7)

• A trapped single ion inside a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Suppression of Heating Rates in Cryogenic Surface-Electrode Ion Traps
• Scanning tunnelling microscopy for ultracold atoms
• Quantum Phases of Trapped Ions in an Optical Lattice
• Sympathetic cooling of the Ba${}^{+}$ ion by collisions with ultracold Rb atoms: theoretical prospects
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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Probing Multiple Electric Dipole Forbidden Optical Transitions in Highly Charged Nickel Ions
• Trapping, Shaping and Isolating of Ion Coulomb Crystals via State-selective Optical Potentials
• Ultracold ion-atom experiments: cooling, chemistry, and quantum effects
• Trapping Single Ions and Coulomb Crystals with Light Fields
• Interactions of Ions and Ultracold Neutral Atom Ensembles in Composite Optical Dipole Traps: Developments and Perspectives