Speaker
Description
Coherently manipulated large ion crystals in a Penning trap are a promising candidate for near-term quantum simulation of complex many-body phenomena [1]. At the University of Sydney, we have developed a Penning trap to perform such experiments with crystals containing hundreds of beryllium ions [2]. The system has recently demonstrated efficient site-resolved imaging, enabling single-shot experiments to investigate dynamics in correlated systems [3]. To further advance the quantum simulation capabilities to tackle more exotic many-body systems [4], we have developed a technique to address individual ions in these fast-rotating crystals. To this end, an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) with variable driving frequency deflects a 313nm optical pumping laser beam to address different radii in the ion crystal. A second AOM is used to rapidly modulate the laser power, thereby addressing individual ions at a certain radius. An optical system has been built which generates a laser beam displacement large enough to cover ion crystals with more than 300um diameter and, at the same time, achieves a focus size small enough to hit only a single ion at a time (~30um). The system design, characterisation as well as a first application to create an exotic collective spin state [4] will be presented.
References
[1] J. Bohnet et al., Science 352, 6291 (2016).
[2] H. Ball, et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 90, 053103 (2019).
[3] R. N. Wolf, et al., Phys. Rev. Applied 21, 054067 (2024).
[4] A. Shankar, et al., PRX Quantum 3, 040324 (2022).
