Photoionization and Photoelectric Loading of Barium Ion Traps

Abstract

Simple and effective techniques for loading barium ions into linear Paul traps are demonstrated. Two-step photoionization of neutral barium is achieved using a weak intercombination line (6s2 1S0 <-> 6s6p 3P1, 791 nm) followed by excitation above the ionization threshold using a nitrogen gas laser (337 nm). Isotopic selectivity is achieved by using a near Doppler-free geometry for excitation of the triplet 6s6p 3P1 state. Additionally, we report a particularly simple and efficient trap loading technique that employs an in-expensive UV epoxy curing lamp to generate photoelectrons.

5 pages, Accepted to PRA 3/20/2007 -fixed typo -clarified figure 3 caption -added reference [15]

References in corpus (1)

• Scaling and Suppression of Anomalous Quantum Decoherence in Ion Traps

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Laser ablation production of Ba, Ca, Dy, Er, La, Lu, and Yb ions
• Isotope-Selective Laser Ablation Ion-Trap Loading of ${}^{137}{\mathrm{Ba}}^{+}$ using a ${\mathrm{BaCl}}_2$ Target
• Coherent Excitation of the 6S1/2 to 5D3/2 Electric Quadrupole Transition in 138Ba+
• Ablation loading of barium ions into a surface electrode trap
• Preparing pure ${}^{43}$Ca${}^{+}$ samples in an ion trap with photoionization and parametric excitations
• Direct measurement of isotope shifts in the barium 6s${}^2$ ${}^1$S${}_0$-5d6p ${}^3$D${}_1^{\text{o}}$ transition
• An Upper Bound on the Strongly Forbidden $6S_{1/2}\leftrightarrow 5D_{3/2}$ Magnetic Dipole Transition Moment in {Ba}${}^{+}$