Efficient Ground-State Cooling of Large Trapped-Ion Chains with an Electromagnetically-Induced-Transparency Tripod Scheme

Seeking a quantum advantage with trapped-ion quantum simulations of condensed-phase chemical dynamics

Simulating the quantum dynamics of molecules in the condensed phase represents a longstanding challenge in chemistry. Trapped-ion quantum systems may serve as a platform for the analog-quantum simulation of chemical dynamics that is beyond the reach of current classical-digital simulation. To identify a 'quantum advantage' for these simulations, performance analysis of both analog-quantum simulation on noisy hardware and classical-digital algorithms is needed. In this Review, we make a comparison between a noisy analog trapped-ion simulator and a few choice classical-digital methods on simulating the dynamics of a model molecular Hamiltonian with linear vibronic coupling. We describe several simple Hamiltonians that are commonly used to model molecular systems, which can be simulated with existing or emerging trapped-ion hardware. These Hamiltonians may serve as stepping stones towards the use of trapped-ion simulators for systems beyond the reach of classical-digital methods. Finally, we identify dynamical regimes in which classical-digital simulations seem to have the weakest performance with respect to analog-quantum simulations. These regimes may provide the lowest hanging fruit to make the most of potential quantum advantages.

Exploiting Nonclassical Motion of a Trapped Ion Crystal for Quantum-Enhanced Metrology of Global and Differential Spin Rotations

We theoretically investigate prospects for the creation of nonclassical spin states in trapped ion arrays by coupling to a squeezed state of the collective motion of the ions. The correlations of the generated spin states can be tailored for quantum-enhanced sensing of global or differential rotations of subensembles of the spins by working with specific vibrational modes of the ion array. We propose a pair of protocols to utilize the generated states and demonstrate their viability even for small systems, while assessing limitations imposed by spin-motion entanglement and technical noise. Our work suggests new opportunities for the preparation of many-body states with tailored correlations for quantum-enhanced metrology in spin-boson systems.

Sideband cooling of a trapped ion in strong sideband coupling regime

Conventional theoretical studies on the ground-state laser cooling of a trapped ion have mostly focused on the weak sideband coupling (WSC) regime, where the cooling rate is inverse proportional to the linewidth of the excited state. In a recent work [New J. Phys.23, 023018 (2021)10.1088/1367-2630/abe273], we proposed a theoretical framework to study the ground state cooling of a trapped ion in the strong sideband coupling (SSC) regime, under the assumption of a vanishing carrier transition. Here we extend this analysis to more general situations with nonvanishing carrier transitions, where we show that by properly tuning the coupling lasers a cooling rate proportional to the linewidth can be achieved. Our theoretical predictions closely agree with the corresponding exact solutions in the SSC regime, which provide an important theoretical guidance for sideband cooling experiments.

Scalable Quantum Logic Spectroscopy

In quantum logic spectroscopy (QLS), one species of trapped ion is used as a sensor to detect the state of an otherwise inaccessible ion species. This extends precision measurements to a broader class of atomic and molecular systems for applications like atomic clocks and tests of fundamental physics. Here, we develop a new technique based on a Schrödinger cat interferometer to address the problem of scaling QLS to larger ion numbers. We demonstrate the basic features of this method using various combinations of ^{25}Mg^{+} logic ions and ^{27}Al^{+} spectroscopy ions. We observe higher detection efficiency by increasing the number of ^{25}Mg^{+} ions. Applied to multiple ^{27}Al^{+}, this method will improve the stability of high-accuracy optical clocks and could enable Heisenberg-limited QLS.

A versatile multi-tone laser system for manipulating atomic qubits based on a fiber Mach-Zehnder modulator and second harmonic generation

Stimulated Raman transition is a fundamental method to coherently manipulate quantum states in different physical systems. Phase-coherent dichromatic radiation fields matching the energy level splitting are the key to realizing stimulated Raman transition. Here we demonstrate a flexible-tuning, spectrum-clean and fiber-compatible method to generate a highly phase-coherent and high-power multi-tone laser. This method features the utilization of a broadband fiber Mach-Zehnder modulator working at carrier suppression condition and second harmonic generation. We generate a multi-tone continuous-wave 532 nm laser with a power of 1.5 Watts and utilize it to manipulate the spin and motional states of a trapped ¹⁷¹Yb⁺ ion via stimulated Raman transition. For spin state manipulation, we acquire an effective Rabi frequency of 2π × 662.3 kHz. Due to the broad bandwidth of the fiber modulator and nonlinear crystal, the frequency gap between tones can be flexibly tuned. Benefiting from the features above, this method can manipulate ¹⁷¹Yb⁺ and ¹³⁷Ba⁺ simultaneously in the multi-species ion trap and has potential to be widely applied in atomic, molecular and optical physics.

Experimental Realization of Multi-ion Sympathetic Cooling on a Trapped Ion Crystal

Trapped ions are one of the leading platforms in quantum information science. For quantum computing with large circuit depth and quantum simulation with long evolution time, it is of crucial importance to cool large ion crystals at runtime without affecting the internal states of the computational qubits, thus the necessity of sympathetic cooling. Here, we report multi-ion sympathetic cooling on a long ion chain using a narrow cooling beam focused on two adjacent ions, and optimize the choice of the cooling ions according to the collective oscillation modes of the chain. We show that, by cooling a small fraction of ions, cooling effects close to the global Doppler cooling limit can be achieved. This experiment therefore demonstrates an important enabling step for quantum information processing with large ion crystals.