Trapping Ions and Atoms Optically

Abstract

Isolating neutral and charged particles from the environment is essential in precision experiments. For decades, this has been achieved by trapping ions with radio-frequency (rf) fields and neutral particles with optical fields. Recently, trapping of ions by interaction with light has been demonstrated. This might permit combining the advantages of optical trapping and ions. For example, by superimposing optical traps to investigate ensembles of ions and atoms in absence of any radiofrequency fields, as well as to benefit from the versatile and scalable trapping geometries featured by optical lattices. In particular, ions provide individual addressability, electronic and motional degrees of freedom that can be coherently controlled and detected via high fidelity, state-dependent operations. Their long-range Coulomb interaction is significantly larger compared to those of neutral atoms and molecules. This qualifies to study ultra-cold interaction and chemistry of trapped ions and atoms, as well as to provide a novel platform for higher-dimensional experimental quantum simulations. The aim of this topical review is to present the current state of the art and to discuss current challenges and the prospects of the emerging field.

12 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Trapping, Shaping and Isolating of Ion Coulomb Crystals via State-selective Optical Potentials
• Hybrid electro-optical trap for experiments with levitated particles in vacuum
• Ultracold ion-atom experiments: cooling, chemistry, and quantum effects
• Quasienergy operators and generalized squeezed states for systems of trapped ions
• Disordered resonant media: Self-induced transparency versus light localization
• Interactions of Ions and Ultracold Neutral Atom Ensembles in Composite Optical Dipole Traps: Developments and Perspectives
• Exploring atom-ion Feshbach resonances below the s-wave limit
• Condensation driven by a quantum phase transition