Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

Demonstration of sideband cooling on the 171Yb+ quadrupole transition

Presenting Author: Melissa Revelle, Sandia National Laboratories
Contributing Author(s): Craig. W. Hogle, Brandon Ruzic, Peter Maunz

Trapped ions can be used for a physical realization of a quantum information system in which qubits are encoded in hyperfine energy states. In this system, a high-fidelity two-qubit gate operation requires the ions to be cooled close to the motional ground state of the trap. This is typically accomplished by using Raman laser beams to perform resolved sideband cooling on the motional sideband of the qubit transition itself. In an alternative approach, we take advantage of the narrow linewidth of the quadrupole 2S1/2 to 2D3/2 transition to resolve the motional sidebands by employing a narrow linewidth continuous wave (CW) laser. In addition to 171Yb+, this method can also be applied to ytterbium isotopes without hyperfine structure. Here, we demonstrate this alternative sideband cooling method by applying it to 171Yb+, cooling the ion to the motional ground state, and measuring the residual motional excitation of the ion also using the 2S1/2 to 2D3/2 transition. *Funded, in part, by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). *Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

(Session 5 : Sunday from 5:00pm - 7:00pm)