Experimental demonstration of an efficient number diagnostic for long 1D ion chains

Abstract

Very long, one-dimensional (1D) ion chains are the basis for many applications, in particular in quantum information processing and reliable diagnostics are needed to quantify them. To that purpose, we have experimentally validated Dubin's model for very long ion chains [Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 2753 (1993)]. This diagnostic allows to precisely determine the number of trapped ion with an accuracy of almost 1\% without counting them, by measuring the ion-ion distance of the innermost particles, as well as the trapping potential along the ion chain direction. In our experiment, based on a 155 ion chain, the central 30 ions are measured to be equidistant to better than 2\%, and we can determine the total number of trapped ions with a 4.5\% uncertainty, completely dominated by a conservative estimation of the experimental characterisation of the trap.

arXiv comment4 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (14)

• Quantum dynamics of cold trapped ions, with application to quantum computation
• The Ion Trap Quantum Information Processor
• Symmetry Breaking and Topological Defect Formation in Ion Coulomb Crystals
• Observation of the Kibble-Zurek scaling law for defect formation in ion crystals
• Structural defects in ion crystals by quenching the external potential: the inhomogeneous Kibble-Zurek mechanism
• Large Scale Quantum Computation in an Anharmonic Linear Ion Trap
• Nanofriction in Cold Ion Traps
• Frenkel-Kontorova model with cold trapped ions
• Observation of power-law scaling for phase transitions in linear trapped ion crystals
• Dynamics of an ion chain in a harmonic potential
• Parallel execution of quantum gates in a long linear ion chain via Rydberg mode shaping
• Nano-friction in cavity quantum electrodynamics
• Pattern formation in colloidal explosions
• Fast and efficient transport of large ion clouds

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Symmetry breaking in linear multipole traps
• Far-from-equilibrium noise heating and laser cooling dynamics in radio-frequency Paul traps
• Static kinks in chains of interacting atoms
• Quantum error correction for long chains of trapped ions
• Dynamics of quantum discommensurations in the Frenkel-Kontorova chain
• Tuning nonthermal distributions to thermal ones in time-dependent Paul traps
• Defect generation and dynamics during quenching in finite size homogeneous ion chains
• Deterministic preparation of a dual-species two-ion crystal
• Realisation of homogeneous ion chain using surface traps